Western Europe

People, Countries, and Cities

Where is Atlantis

Atlantis, the legendary underwater utopia supposedly located west of the Pillars of Hercules (the land on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar), was first described by Plato in the fourth century B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) as a magnificent civilization that was swallowed by the sea. Though Plato believed Atlantis to have been destroyed, the legend has grown over the centuries to describe this civilization as an underwater kingdom. Researchers now believe that the legend of Atlantis was based on the ancient Minoan civilization that lived on the Greek islands of Thira and Crete, which disappeared after a volcanic eruption in the sixteenth century B.C.E. Thus, the Minoan civilization in Thira and Crete fits the approximate date of Atlantis’s destruction, but not its supposed location.

