Where is Atlantis and how long ago did it sink?

Plato was a Greek philosopher who wrote about a great civilization on Atlantis, which sunk into the ocean as punishment from the gods. According to Plato, Atlantis' destruction occurred 9,000 years before him. There are theories that Plato's dating was wrong, and that Atlantis would have been on Crete, located near the island of Santorinas. read more

Various people following the works of the classical philosophers have tried desperately to associate Atlantis with a real place, but there’s really nothing to suggest that the island or its empire were ever anything but a made-up place in a philosophical allegory. read more

Plato told the story of Atlantis around 360 B.C. and claimed that Atlantis fell 9,000 years before. Most scholars believe that Atlantis was a fictional creation of Plato's to illustrate his philosophical beliefs. read more

Speculation is that the story of Atlantis was based on the explosion of Thera around 1800 BC. That was a city built on the rim of an undersea volcano that exploded. It’s now the island of Santorini. read more