# Atlantis found....... yet again? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 14, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775 "2004-11-14T22:41:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/1 "2004-11-14T22:41:58Z")
[http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/11/14/cyprus.atlantis.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/11/14/cyprus.atlantis.ap/index.html) I’d love for it to be true, but it just seems a little too fishy for me. Particulary the bit about “Just where plato said it would be”. Since when is the Atlantic and the Eastern Mediterrean the same place? The sinking land bit is a bit suspect as well. What say you? BS or not? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/2 "2004-11-14T22:54:27Z")
BS. If for no other reason than all the _other_ “Atlantis found” news stories and threads I’ve read. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/3 "2004-11-14T23:19:30Z")
Piffle. I found Atlantis in my sock drawer just the other week. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/4 "2004-11-14T23:43:11Z")
Total BS, but would be interesting if there ARE ruins there. However, from my own experience (I won’t say where) side scanning sonar is notoriously suspect for this kind of stuff. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen ‘hits’ (looking for ships or planes or such) only to dive down and find a rock…or nothing at all. Basically they could have ‘seen’ what APPEARED to be man made formations…but until they actually go there and look they won’t know anything. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/5 "2004-11-14T23:48:18Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > [http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/11/14/cyprus.atlantis.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/11/14/cyprus.atlantis.ap/index.html) > > I’d love for it to be true, but it just seems a little too fishy for me. Particulary the bit about “Just where plato said it would be”. Since when is the Atlantic and the Eastern Mediterrean the same place? > > The sinking land bit is a bit suspect as well. > > What say you? BS or not? Nitpick - Plato never said it was in the Atlantic. Later scholars interperated his text as meaning it was in the western sea and named the ocean after it; theses new researcher clain that the scholars were wrong and that Plato meant the Mediterranian all along. Which makes sense, as he was Greek. Still seems like a load of BS. Real scientists don’t say their evidence is “irrefutable”. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/6 "2004-11-15T00:04:31Z")
I wonder if 2,000 years from now people won’t be looking for the lost “land of Oz”, or the ruins of the fabled “Gotham City”. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/7 "2004-11-15T00:10:22Z")
“Further confirmation of the historian Baum’s writings on the fabled city came in 1980, when President Reagan referred to a ‘shining city on a hill’ as clear a reference to Oz as can be. Excavations continue near the ruins of Alexandria, Virginia as the most likely location of this ‘Crystal City,’ but my findings prove conclusively that…” ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/8 "2004-11-15T00:19:28Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > Piffle. I found Atlantis in my sock drawer just the other week. Dammit, if you’d just kept track of it after you found it, we wouldn’t have this continual annoyance of Atlantis-sighting threads! Try to be more careful next time, will you? :dubious: Besides, everyone knows that it’s the Yetis’ Cloaking Device that keeps people from finding the **real** Atlantis! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/9 "2004-11-15T00:34:09Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > I wonder if 2,000 years from now people won’t be looking for the lost “land of Oz”, or the ruins of the fabled “Gotham City”. One archaeologist will discover Gotham in New York, while another will discover it close to Nottingham. ---
**Author:** ![cj\_finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@cj\_finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cj_finn)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/10 "2004-11-15T01:59:20Z")
What I really want to know is how does a city sink 1500 meters? If it can be shown that this actually happens, then I might even believe the guy. (I still don’t think I’d be donating to his cause mind you). cj ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/11 "2004-11-15T02:43:46Z")
It sounds like the guy who’s making this claim has no credentials at all in archaeology. The article describes him simply as “an American researcher,” and the real archaeologists are quite dubious. > [@](#): > > We have definitely found the Acropolis of Atlantis," he affirmed, adding the site was 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of Cyprus. Real scientists do not say things like this. > [@](#): > > The chief government archaeologist of Cyprus, Pavlos Flourentzos, reacted with skepticism, telling The Associated Press: “More proof is necessary.” > > Sarmast, 38, is an architect by training from Los Angeles. He has devoted the past two-and-a-half years to trying to locate the lost city described by Plato in his dialogues, the Timaeous and the Critias. He spoke to reporters on the “Flying Enterprise,” his expeditionary ship, after six days of taking highly sophisticated “side scan” sonars of the seabed. The dude is an architect with a hobby. I would put this guy in the same category as Noah’s Ark hunters and Bigfoot chasers. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/12 "2004-11-15T04:14:30Z")
It’s an interesting “discovery”. It may be nothing, it may be what the ancients called Atalntis, it may be someting entirely different. I’ll wait for the article published in a peer review scientific journal… ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/13 "2004-11-15T04:37:55Z")
> [@cj finn](#): > > What I really want to know is how does a city sink 1500 meters? If it can be shown that this actually happens, then I might even believe the guy. (I still don’t think I’d be donating to his cause mind you). > > cj I want to know how it can sink and there be anything recognizable at all, let alone an acropolis. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/14 "2004-11-15T04:43:13Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I want to know how it can sink and there be anything recognizable at all, let alone an acropolis. This is not uncommon at all. [Sea levels can rise or earthquakes/volcanoes can cause , or parts of cities to become submerged.](http://www.underwaterdiscovery.org/english/projects/alexandria/history/) If Atlantis existed 9,000 years ago, it wouldn’t be surprising at all. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/15 "2004-11-15T04:59:32Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > This is not uncommon at all. [Sea levels can rise or earthquakes/volcanoes can cause , or parts of cities to become submerged.](http://www.underwaterdiscovery.org/english/projects/alexandria/history/) If Atlantis existed 9,000 years ago, it wouldn’t be surprising at all. But would there be anything recognizable left after a 1500 m plunge? ---
**Author:** ![Mirasawa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mirasawa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirasawa)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/16 "2004-11-15T05:02:18Z")
I ascribe to the theory that the ill-fated Minoan civilization is Atlantis… though the details got scrambled by the time Plato wrote it down. The only thing he got right was the fact it was a great civilization and got wiped out in a disaster. \_ \_ ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/17 "2004-11-15T05:18:37Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > But would there be anything recognizable left after a 1500 m plunge? The depth isn’t really significant. I don’t know what the terminal velocity is for stone in water, but it isn’t very fast, and I suspect it is reached rather quickly. And the bottom of the sea tends to be rather soft. Why would you think it would be a problem? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/18 "2004-11-15T05:22:50Z")
Also, the material wouldn’t have had to descend to that depth all at once. It could very easily have been a serious of events that resuted in it settling at the current depth. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/19 "2004-11-15T05:26:42Z")
I don’t believe that there’s any hypothesis that Atlantis literally “sank” in the sense of falling to the bottom of the ocean. Any theories that I’m aware of in this regard pertain to tidal waves caused by earthquakes. The belief is that the water blanketed the land not that the land was floating on the surface and then just “dropped.” ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775/20 "2004-11-15T05:44:22Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > I wonder if 2,000 years from now people won’t be looking for the lost “land of Oz”, or the ruins of the fabled “Gotham City”. Haha!! Reminds me of the David McCauley book, \*Motel of the Gods \* and that skit on the old Artie Johnson record album, _Ton Laundry_[Washington]. This could be a great thread!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlantis-found-yet-again/274775.md?page=2)