# Atlantis: Cuba, Black Sea, Med., Atlantic, cornfield? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 3, 2002, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-cuba-black-sea-med-atlantic-cornfield/122140 "2002-08-03T06:00:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-cuba-black-sea-med-atlantic-cornfield/122140/21 "2002-08-04T16:54:32Z")
Seeing as this is Cecil’s message board, it only seems sporting to include a link to his 1997 column, reprinted in _Triumph of the Straight Dope_: [Is the lost city of Atlantis at the bottom of a lake in North Dakota?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_069.html) ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2002, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-cuba-black-sea-med-atlantic-cornfield/122140/22 "2002-08-04T18:05:09Z")
**Cecil Adams** > [@](#): > > Let’s not forget that everybody thought Troy was fictional until Schliemann dug it up in Turkey. This fact and my history of archaeology class keep me going. Nobody believes anything - nor should they - until you dig it out of the ground. But just because it has not yet been dug does not mean it does not exist. **Cecil Adams** > [@](#): > > Atlantis was located just about anywhere else you’d care to name in our sector of the galaxy. Proposed sites include Morocco, Nigeria, Asia Minor, Tunisia, the North Sea, the Bahamas, the southeastern U.S., the martian polar ice cap, and for all I know, Neptune Lake. Pops may have flipped, but he’s got a lot of company. OTOH, I am not holding my breath. \*\*Does anyone know about the alleged Atlantean evidence in the southeastern US? \*\* ---
**Author:** ![partly\_warmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@partly\_warmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partly_warmer)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-cuba-black-sea-med-atlantic-cornfield/122140/23 "2002-08-05T10:38:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SpoilerVirgin \* > \*\*There’s a _Disco Channel_? Isn’t that one of the signs of the apocalypse? 😉 \*\* Was it just a really scary coincidence that at the moment I read this, the number of your posts was at 666? * * * Cecil’s somewhat off base with the notion that Atlantis has been reputed to be just about anywhere in the world. I happened to be tangentially involved with one of the people giving Jacques Cousteau advice about where to film his special about looking for Atlantis. The serious money is on somewhere around the Med. The Canary Islands are about as far out as anyone guesses reasonably, for the fairly obvious reason that Plato didn’t know about very much, very accurately outside that little European/African sea. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-cuba-black-sea-med-atlantic-cornfield/122140/24 "2002-08-05T14:36:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beagle \* > \*\*Does anyone know about the alleged Atlantean evidence in the southeastern US? \*\* Yep, and it is not alleged, either, the evidence is concrete, provable and irrefutable. [Atlantis exists](http://www.gopbi.com/homes/neighborhoods/atlantis.html), and it’s in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Engywook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bc8723/32.png) [@Engywook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engywook)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2002, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-cuba-black-sea-med-atlantic-cornfield/122140/25 "2002-08-05T17:43:22Z")
The problem is, what is our working definition of Atlantis to be? It needs to be something more than any old city we dig up, whose apparent origins don’t fit the framework of our model of history. This certainly would be an important discovery, but you can’t just say “This was Atlantis.” We’ve revised the legend in our own time. Now I think there’s a stress on Atlantis being a long-lost connection between Europe (or Africa) and the Americas. It’s a strong desire for a more satisfying history… and an extraordinary claim that would require extraordinary evidence. And the idea that Plato actually knew about Zelitsky’s city? Impossibly extraordinary. Show me. We have a model of (pre-)history that’s been taking a lot of challenges lately. I would urge that we stick to the evidence we have, and confine our alternative theories to what we can test easily. If we can demonstrate a surprising antiquity and level of sophistication in Zelitsky’s city, that should be shocking enough for anyone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-cuba-black-sea-med-atlantic-cornfield/122140.md?page=1)