1. The idea that Atlantis was an actual historical place, and not just a legend invented by Plato, didn’t start until the late 19th century. An 1882 book book about Atlantis described a continent flooded by shifting ocean waters that sank in the exact location Plato said it did: in the Atlantic Ocean just outside the “Pillars of Hercules,” the two rocks that mark the entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar.

2. Atlantis was swallowed up by the Bermuda Triangle.
Many later writers later added their own theories about Atlantis. In the 1970s, another book claimed Atlantis was a real continent located off the Bahamas that had fallen victim to the notorious “Bermuda Triangle,” a region of the Atlantic where a number of ships had supposedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Supporters of this theory point to the discovery of what look like man-made walls and streets found off the coast of Bimini, although scientists believe these are natural beach-rock formations.


3. Atlantis was Antarctica.
Another theory–that Atlantis was actually a much more temperate version of what is now Antarctica. According to this theory, around 12,000 years ago the Earth’s crust shifted, moving the continent that became Antarctica from a location much further north than it is today. This more temperate continent was home to an advanced civilization, but the sudden shift to its current frigid location doomed the civilization’s inhabitants–the Atlanteans–and their magnificent city were buried under layers of ice.

4. The story of Atlantis was a mythical retelling of the Black Sea Flood.
This theory presumes Atlantis itself was fictional, but the story of its demise was inspired by an actual historical event: the flooding of the Black Sea, around 5600 B.C. At the time, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake half its current size. The flooding destroyed civilizations along its shore with hundreds of feet of sea water in a short period of time (perhaps less than a year). As inhabitants of the region scattered, they spread tales of the flood and may have led–thousands of years later–to Plato’s account of Atlantis.

5. Atlantis is the story of the Minoan civilization, which flourished in the Greek islands circa 2500-1600 B.C.
Island of Thera (Santorin) in an eruption that may have created a tidal wave destroying Knossus and wiping out the Minoans. One of the more recent Atlantean theories concerns the civilization that flourished on the Greek islands of Crete and Thera (now Santorini) more than 4,000 years ago: the Minoans, named for the legendary King Minos. Believed to be Europe’s first great civilization, the Minoans built splendid palaces, constructed paved roads and were the first Europeans to use a written language. At the height of their power, however, the Minoans suddenly disappeared from history–an enduring mystery that has fueled belief in a link between this great, doomed civilization and Plato’s Atlantis. Historians believe around 1600 B.C., a massive earthquake shook the volcanic island of Thera, triggering an eruption that spewed 10 million tons of rock, ash and gas into the atmosphere. Tsunamis that followed the eruption were large enough to wipe out Minoan cities throughout the region, a devastation that may have made the Minoans vulnerable to invaders from the Greek mainland.

6. Atlantis didn’t exist at all–Plato invented it.
Most historians and scientists throughout history have come to the conclusion that Plato’s account of the lost kingdom of Atlantis was fictional. According to this argument, the Greek philosopher invented Atlantis as his vision of an ideal civilization, and intended the story of its demise to be a cautionary tale of the gods punishing human hubris. No written records of Atlantis exist outside of Plato’s dialogues, including in any of the numerous other texts that survive from ancient Greece.