2. Despite hundreds of years of investigation, the location of the lost island of Atlantis, if it ever existed, remains a secret
Atlantis is a fictional island described in the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, allegorically serving as a commentary on the hubris of nations, for which shortcoming the island nation fell out of favor with the Gods and was sunk beneath the Atlantic Ocean. Although it is agreed upon that the story of Atlantic offered by Plato is unquestionably fictitious, his account of an island that sunk beneath the waves has spawned considerable speculation that the lost landmass might have actually historically existed. Plato was known to borrow many of his allegories from older storytelling traditions, increasing the likelihood that Atlantis was founded in truth.
Inspired by Ignatius Donnelly’s Atlantis: the Antediluvian World (1882), who believed that many ancient civilizations were descended from a lost central source destroyed during the biblical Great Flood, subsequent investigation and inquiry have produced several hypotheses concerning the fate and location of the island of Atlantis. The majority of these proposed sites are situated in the Mediterranean Sea, with the disappearance of Atlantis revolving around the known Thera eruption that occurred in either the 17th or 16th century BCE. This eruption generated a gigantic tsunami believed to have devastated the Minoan civilization located on the island of Crete, with Atlantis considered to potentially have been another victim of this natural disaster.