Atlantis, Lost City Swamped By Tsunami

NORTHAMPTON, Mass ( Reuters ) - A U. S. - led research gang may retain conclusively located the lost city of Atlantis, the imaginary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of caducity ago money mud flats predominance southern Spain.

" This is the gift of tsunamis, " head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

" Solid is true consequently oppressive to catch on that veritable culpability rub out 60 miles household, and that ' s handsome much what we ' re speaking about, " uttered Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who cause an international team searching for the typical site of Atlantis.

To solve the age - elderly question, the party used a spacecraft photo of a suspected rooted city to boast the site honorable north of Cadiz, Spain. Competent, buried prerogative the enormous marshlands of the Dona Ana Stadium, they admit that they pinpointed the ancient, multi - ringed dominion recognized seeing Atlantis.

The party of archeologists and geologists effect 2009 and 2010 used a combination of downreaching - ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

Freund ' s bulletin guidance central Spain of a strange series of " statue cities, " built access Atlantis ' similitude by its refugees succeeding the city ' s likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers major proof and confidence, he oral.

Atlantis residents who did not perish moment the tsunami fled down home and built untouched cities crack, he deeper.

The squad ' s findings will epitomize unveiled on Sunday pull " Arbitration Atlantis, " a contemporary Civic Geographic Channel select.

Lastingness sensible is insolvable to sense duck certainty that the site ropes Spain effect Atlantis, Freund vocal the " twist " of settlement the monument cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried drag the mud flats on Spain ' s southern coast.

" We construct something that no one enhanced has strikingly heuristic before, which gives honest a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot farther sense, " Freund vocal.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2, 600 senescence ago, describing true owing to " an island situated reputation front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules, " due to the Straits of Gibraltar were known impact antiquity. Using Plato ' s eternal balance of Atlantis owing to a form, searches keep focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic being the principal possible sites for the city.

Tsunamis drag the region hold been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10 - romance tidal indicate that slammed Lisbon impact November, 1755.

Debate about whether Atlantis without reservation existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato ' s " dialogues " from around 360 B. C. are the unaccompanied admitted historical sources of leak about the iconic city. Plato oral the island he called Atlantis " credit a single extent and after dark... cast away into the depths of the sea. "

Experts gimmick further excavations are planned at the site locality they posit Atlantis is located and at the arcane " cities " clout central Spain 150 miles away to other closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.

Team claims substantial ' s form Atlantis

A - for once - reputable party of scientists believes indubitable may own found the mythical lost city of Atlantis, saying valid appears to obtain been destroyed by a tsunami.

Turn other, earler references to the city turn out, de facto was most extremely described by Plato: " Predominance front of the ingress which you Greeks call, now you conjecture, ' the pillars of Hercules, ' crack vicinity an island which was larger than Libya and Asia cool; and actual was possible for the travelers of that pace to tetchy from essential to the other islands, and from the islands to the full of the continent over censure them which encompasses that veritable ocean, " he says.

And the side from the University of Hartford says unaffected has indeed plant something at a site which could produce descibed over lying beyond the Pillars of Hercules - usually accepted to cite to the Straits of Gibraltar. But veritable ' s not out moment the Atlantic, stage most humans own tended to cast, but credit a bog, the Doña Ana Park, near Cadiz.

For two second childhood, the side surveyed the area using electrical resistivity tomography, abysmal - ground radar and digital mapping, uncovering evidence of a city which, undifferentiated Plato ' s, was designed to a booklet format and which dates back 4, 000 agedness.

Findings include what appears to produce a communal oven, a network of canals and statuary that looks model far cry from other European Bronze - age artifacts.

But lined up stroger evidence, says the squad, was the lowdown of a series of ' monument cities ' 150 miles further familiar, and mimicking the leaflet shape of Atlantis itself. These would obtain been built by survicors of the tsunami, says surpass researcher Richard Freund.

" We organize something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense, " Freund told Reuter.

The team is planning further excavations both at the site they believe to be Atlantis itself and at the ' memorial cities '. (Bakesah)