Wait a minute! Isn't this old stuff? This is old stuff!!

Within the past couple of decades, I recall seeing several programs on the tube: Nova on PBS, Discovery Channel, History Channel, etc., about Thera, an island in the eastern Mediterranean where resided a fairly highly developed civilization. It was wiped out when the whole island—unbeknown to the inhabitants, the top of a volcano—suddenly erupted violently, wiping out said civilization. The general consensus of most historians and archeologists is that this—Thera—was the "Atlantis" that Plato was talking about.

Plato said that it was destroyed 9,000 years before his time (give or take a couple of millennia), and that it was "beyond the Gates of Hercules." The Gates of Hercules is now considered to be the Straits of Gibraltar, which would put Atlantis somewhere in the Atlantic ocean, but historians say that the actual location of the G. of H. was not all that specific in Plato's time. It was sort of "somewhere over thataway." And as far as the 9,000 years is concerned, the actual term was probably "myriad," which, if one wants to be precise, means "approximately 10,000," but in common usage, it just means "one helluva lot." The volcanic explosion was more like 900 years before Plato's time. Plato's geographical and temporal coordinates were both off by about a factor of ten.

What remains is now a semi-circular island (part of the top rim of the crater) called Santorini.

Here's some pertinent poop. KABOOM!!. More HERE.

Another theory advanced, which attempts to explain either or both Atlantis and Noah's flood, is that a settlement was found on the shores of the Black Sea—about 200 feet below the current sea level. What is known is that somewhat after the end of the last ice age, there was a residual ice dam either at the Dardanelles or the strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea that held back the waters of the Mediterranean, then eventually melted and let go, flooding large areas of what had previously been dry land. Another Nova episode. Actually, one could hardly have attributed a high level of civilization to this settlement. It was little more than a fishing village. But seeing a large area permanently inundated by a 200 foot wall of water is pretty impressive. This is the stuff of which myths and legends are made.

I am fascinated by this stuff, and I'm as open-minded as anyone. But I'm not so open-minded that my brain has dropped out. I just don't buy the goatfeathers put forth by those who claim to draw some kind of "secret knowledge" from their alleged psychic connection with "ancient Atlantians." There exists what might be called a "cult of Atlantis." The discovery of the real "Atlantis" is most disturbing to these people. It means that scientists and historians are going to get involved and find out what really went on there. This blows the hell out of the myth and demonstrates that their claims of psychic ties with an "advanced civilization" is a lot of occult nonsense. So to keep the fun going, a whole new Atlantis has to be invented.

Don Firth