Humans have been searching for Atlantis for thousands of years.
Now one archaeologist believes the long-lost city may be hiding along the coast of southern Spain.
Michael Donnellan has been investigating the area around Cádiz, a city in Andalusia, which he claims ‘perfectly matches’ Plato’s description of Atlantis that was swallowed by the sea more than 11,600 years ago.
‘Bordering on the sea and extending through the center of the whole island there was a plain, which is said to have been the fairest of all plains and highly fertile; and, moreover, near the plain, over against its center… there stood a mountain that was low on all sides,’ Plato wrote in Critias.
‘Cádiz sits on an extremely flat plain, just as Plato said,’ Donnellan explained to the Daily Mail.
‘It stretches out on a continental shelf and then drops off into the Atlantic, just like the description of Atlantis.’
Plato first introduced Atlantis in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written around 360 BC.
He described it as a technologically advanced society that existed 9,000 years before his time, placing it over 11,000 years ago.
For centuries, the mystery of Atlantis has captivated explorers and scholars alike, but one archaeologist now believes the legendary city may have once stood along Spain’s southern coast in the city of Cádiz (pictured)
Michael Donnellan, who has been investigating the Spanish city for eight years, noted that Plato talked about horses in Atlantis, saying that the region is home to the oldest breed (pictured)
One key detail Plato highlighted was the abundance of wildlife, including elephants, horses and bulls, which Donnellan said aligns perfectly with the archaeological record of southern Spain.
‘The original horse in this area is believed to be the oldest breed in the world,’ he said. ‘Same with the bull, the fighting bull from Andalusia traces back thousands of years.’
Donnellan added there was also a prehistoric ivory trade through this part of Spain, noting that three types of elephants lived there, including Asian elephants, which suggested there was international commerce between this region and Asia.
He recently announced the discovery of ‘long linear structures’ etched across the ocean floor off the coast of Cádiz, which he believes was once home to a lost Atlantic civilization.
The structures formed a series of ‘enormous concentric circular walls,’ each standing more than 20ft tall and arranged in an organized pattern.
Plato’s writings describe an advanced civilization that built grand temples and massive harbor walls before being swallowed by the sea more than 11,600 years ago
The outermost wall showed the most damage, as if it had been pummeled by a massive tsunami racing in from the sea.
The second and third walls, he said, were ‘completely displaced,’ with scans showing them split into two.
Between the walls sat intricately carved canals and at the center was a rectangular ruin that, according to Donnellan, echoes Plato’s description of Poseidon’s temple, forming what he believes is the capital city of Atlantis.
Now, Donnellan has shared more details about Cádiz that he is sure matches Plato’s writings.
Plato described Atlantis as featuring a vast, fertile plain ‘3,000 stadia long and 2,000 stadia wide, roughly 340 miles by 230 miles, surrounded by towering mountains.’
Donnellan pointed to a set of massive, carved-out caves overlooking the coast, more than 600 feet above sea level.
Massive structures were found around 65 feet below the surface. The team also identified ‘long, linear structures’ etched across the ocean floor
‘You see a cliff ledge inland and three perfectly aligned caves, and 65 feet lower are two more perfectly aligned caves,’ he said, adding that another cave sits another 65 feet below those.
However, he said there are ‘thousands, upon thousands of these man-made caves,’ which he believes were possibly built by survivors of an ancient cataclysm.
‘People talk about cavemen as the first people,’ Donnellan said. ‘But I think the cavemen were survivors.
‘After some kind of impact event, everyone living along the coast vanished. The people who made it fled into the mountains.’
Cádiz is also home to the oldest horse breed in the world, the Caspian horse, which originated in Iran and has remains dating back to 3,400 BC.
While Plato does not mention a specific breed of horse, he wrote that members of the ancient Atlantic civilization ‘had a great number of chariots and horses and a large cavalry force.’
Plato described Atlantis as a vast, fertile plain stretching roughly 340 by 230 miles and surrounded by towering mountains, a vision that Donnellan links to a series of massive, carved-out caves perched over 600 feet above the southern Spanish coast
Donnellan described a cliff ledge inland where three caves are precisely aligned, with two more positioned 65 feet below them, and yet another cave located an additional 65 feet beneath that second level
The native bull, the Vaca Marismeña, is among the oldest cattle breeds in Spain with genetic ties to ancient Iberian livestock dating back around 7,000 to 6,000 BC.
‘He talks about another animal which helped in the daily running of this empire, which was the elephant,’ Donnellan said.
‘There was already a colony of elephants in the region, studies have confirmed this, and we know there was a prehistoric ivory trade throughout this entire part of Andalusia.’
Some researchers have argued that the presence of Asian elephant remains or ivory in southern Spain suggests prehistoric trade routes between Europe and Asia, supporting claims of early international commerce.
Plato wrote the entire island was wiped out by a massive earthquake and flood, disappearing beneath the waves.
‘Plato words it very well,’ Donnellan said.
The archaeologist admits historians do not know what caused the terrible events, but pointed to the idea of the Younger Dryas, a controversial period proposed to have ended around 11,600 BC.
While not widely accepted by mainstream scholars, some fringe researchers have linked it to a cataclysmic event that may have wiped out Atlantis.
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