<description>Recent underwater discoveries off the west coast of Cuba have led some to speculate on an Atlantean connection. However, even before these discoveries were announced, author Andrew Collins had explored the Cuba connection in a book titled Gateway to Atlantis. Collins supports his hypothesis with a great deal of indirect but compelling historical and geographical evidence. He finally suggests present-day Isle of Youth and the shallow sea bottom that surrounds it as a possible location for Atlantis.</description>
<description>The June 1981 edition of Marine Geology shows some radiocarbon dates on mangrove peat, based on the estimate of Broecker and Kulp, listing dates between 5590 and 3680 BC, with connection of the gradual sinking of the FloridaΓÇôBimini region. Most recently the rate of the sea level's rise has slowed to 4.5 in (114 mm) per century. Prior to that time it was one foot per century. Near Andros Island, underwater explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau found a huge submerged cave 165 ft (50 m) beneath the surface. There are stalactites and stalagmites in it, that can be formed in the open air only. Marine sediments on the walls of the grotto enabled scientists to estimate its submersion around or after 10,000 BC. The submarine topography of the Bahamian region shown in the huge Russian Atlas Mira by detailed isobaths, catches the attention of a topographer. The sea floor on the northern side of Cuba, Haiti and Puerto Rico indicates a definite system of submerged valleys of ancient rivers, combined with sunken mountain ranges. The "Tongue of the Ocean" at Andros Island is undoubtedly an underwater ravine caused by terrible tectonic forces, surrounded by almost vertical walls, as a "memento" of the catastrophe. The main problem with this theory is that Atlantis was supposed to have submerged rapidly, following an earthquake.</description>
<description>One of the suggested places for Atlantis is around the Azores Islands, a group of islands belonging to Portugal located about 900 miles (1500 km) west of the Portuguese coast. Some people believe the islands could be the mountain tops of Atlantis.</description>
<description>In 2004, this theory was presented and tested scientifically in the book Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land by Swedish geographer Dr. Ulf Erlingsson from University of Uppsala. It hypothesizes that the empire of Atlantis refers to the Neolithic Megalithic tomb culture, based on their similar geographic extent. He deduces the island of Atlantis was Ireland. </description>
<description>Finnish pseudohistorian Ior Bock locates Atlantis in the southern part of Finland where he claims a small community of people lived during the Ice Age. This is a small part of a large saga that he claims to have been told in his family through the ages, dating back to the development of language itself. Ior also believes that he is a descendant of an ancient Finnish god Lemminkäinen.</description>
<description>Atlantis Motherland, by authors Flying Eagle and Whispering Wind, published in 2003, locates the Island of Atlantis beneath the Sea of Azov and on the adjacent fertile plains to the west in Ukraine and to the east in Krasnodar Kray, Russia. Their research is based on tectonic evidence of a massive earthquake centered at Kerch, at the end of the Pleistocene and evidence of a great flood at the end of the Younger Dryas ice age, in 11,600 BP (9600 BC). This date corresponds with the date set by an aged Egyptian priest for the destruction of Atlantis, as recorded in the dialogues of Plato. A massive earthquake caused the island to sink, creating a new sea, which according to Eagle/Wind is the Sea of Azov. The violent earthquakes and floods left the new sea ΓÇ£impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way.ΓÇ¥ The aged priest refers to the shoals of mud as still existing at that time. The Sea of Azov was blocked by shoals of mud at that time, and would still be today without regular dredging.</description>
<description>German researchers Siegfried and Christian Schoppe locate Atlantis in the Black Sea. Before 5500 BC, a great plain lay in the northwest at a former freshwater-lake. In 5510 BC, rising sea level topped the barrier at today's Bosporus. They identify the Pillars of Hercules with the Strait of Bosporus. Oreichalcos means the obsidian stone that used to be a cash-equivalent at that time and was replaced by the spondylus shell around 5500 BC, which would suit the red, white, black motif. The geocatastrophic event led to the neolithic diaspora in Europe, also beginning 5500 BC.</description>
<description>Ponza has many similarities to the Atlantis legend. Legend say that Ponza was the lost island of Tyrrhenia which was large and had a city at its edge. It was connected by land to the Italian mainland near Naples (Napoli). A volcano exploded and the island sunk leaving only the mountain top which is now called Ponza. Near Naples is Pozzuoli where Roman Temples in the harbor rose above water in the late 1960's due to volcanic processes.</description>
<description>A hypothesis by Juan Fernández Amador de los Ríos (1919), Jürgen Spanuth (1953), Georgeos Díaz-Montexano (2000) "Atlantis Discovery", Rainer W. Kühne (2003) suggests that the Atlanteans were the Sea Peoples who attacked the Eastern Mediterranean countries around 1200 BC. The city and state of Atlantis were located in Andalucia, 50 kilometers southwest of Seville. Werner Wickboldt (2002) and Rainer W. Kühne (2003) claim that recent satellite photos show two rectangular structures, which they hypothesized to be the "temple of Poseidon" and "the temple of Cleito and Poseidon".</description>
<description>British archaeologist Peter James took a clue from Plato's mention of king Tantalus, and investigated the city of Tantalis (also Tantalos) in the province of Manisa, Turkey. In addition to having very similar sounding names, numerous inscriptions and ancient writings from the region matched the Atlantis story. Tantalis, formerly a wealthy city state, was destroyed when a powerful earthquake struck and caused a lake to flood the city.</description>
<description>The geoarchaeologist Eberhard Zangger has proposed the hypothesis that Atlantis was in fact the city state of Troy. He both agrees and disagrees with Rainer W. K├╝hne: He too believes that the Trojans-Atlanteans were the sea peoples, but only a minor part of them. He proposes that all Greek speaking city states of the Aegean civilization or Mycenae constituted the sea peoples and that they destroyed each other's economies in a series of semi-fratricidal wars lasting several decades.</description>
<description>Another recent hypothesis is based on a recreation of the geography of the Mediterranean at the time of Atlantis' supposed existence. Plato states that Atlantis was located beyond the Pillars of Hercules, the name given to the Strait of Gibraltar linking the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. 11,000 years ago the sea level in the area was some 130 metres lower, exposing a number of islands in the strait. One of these, Spartel, could have been Atlantis, though there are a number of inconsistencies with Plato's account.</description>
<description>Dr Anton Mifsud who, with co-authors Simon Mifsud, Chris Agius Sultana and Charles Savona Ventura, published Malta: Echoes of Plato's Island added another recent hypothesis.Their book is the product of thoughtful and profound research about the archeological sites and ancient remains related to Atlantis. Frances Galea in his book Malta Fdal Atlantis also wrote about the results of his lifelong research on several ancient studies and known hypotheses on Atlantis, particularly that of Giorgio Grongnet, the renowned Maltese architect, who in 1854 claimed that the Maltese Islands are the remnants of Atlantis. One has to remember that Malta boasts the oldest free-standing human structures on earth, predating the pyramids by a millenium.</description>
<description>Robert Sarmast, an American architect, claims to have definitely found the lost city of Atlantis on November 14, 2004, saying that by using sonar scans he was able to find manmade walls that matched the description of the structures described by Plato, CNN reports. The site lies 1,500 m deep in the Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Syria. Several geologists were quick to dispute the claim, as the place was deep under water during the period in question.
Recent research (4th of August 2005) has been done by Robert Sarmast in the Eastern Mediterranean sea between Cyprus and Syria. The sonar scans showed evidence of man-made structures one mile below sea level which is possibly a canal wall. Sarmast claims it is a 3 km-long straight wall intersected at right angles by another wall
<description>Among those who believe in an historical Atlantis, a common hypothesis holds that Plato's story of the destruction of Atlantis was inspired by massive volcanic eruptions on the Mediterranean island of Santorini during Minoan times. Skeptics of an Atlantic Ocean location usually promote this theory. Some consider this to be the likeliest hypothesis, though investigators (such as Frank Joseph) discount this theory as misleading. A main criticism of this hypothesis is that the ancient Greeks were well aware of volcanoes, and if there was a volcanic eruption, it would seem likely that it would be mentioned. Additionally, Pharaoh Amenhotep III commanded an emissary to visit the cities surrounding Crete and found the towns occupied shortly after the time Santorini was speculated to have completely destroyed the area.</description>
<description>In 2002 the Italian journalist Sergio Frau published a book, Le colonne d'Ercole (Pillars of Hercules), in which he states that before Eratosthenes, all the ancient Greek writers located the Pillars of Hercules on the Sicily Strait, while only Alexander the Great's conquest of the east obliged Eratosthenes to move the pillars at Gibraltar in his description of the world.
According to his thesis, the Atlantis described by Plato could be identified with Sardinia. In fact, a catastrophe with tsunami eradicated from Sardinia the ancient and still enigmatic Nuragic civilization. The few survivors migrated to the nearby Italian peninsula, founding the Etruscan civilization, the basis for the later Roman civilization, while other survivors were part of those Sea Peoples that attacked Egypt.
<description>some believe that Atlantis was the Minoan civilization, which flourished on the island of Crete, and the river valley civilizations which had large populations.
