DUBLIN (Reuters) - Atlantis, the legendary island nation over whose existence controversy has raged for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by a Swedish scientist.

Atlantis, the Greek philosopher Plato wrote in 360 BC, was an island in the Atlantic Ocean where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago until it was hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster and sank beneath the waves.

Geographer Ulf Erlingsson, whose book explaining his theory will be published next month, says the measurements, geography, and landscape of Atlantis as described by Plato match Ireland almost exactly.

"I am amazed no one has come up with this before, it's incredible," he told Reuters.

"Just like Atlantis, Ireland is 300 miles long, 200 miles wide, and widest across the middle. They both have a central plain surrounded by mountains.

"I've looked at geographical data from the rest of the world and of the 50 largest islands there is only one that has a plain in the middle -- Ireland."

Erlingsson believes the idea that Atlantis sank came from the fate of Dogger Bank, an isolated shoal in the North Sea, about 60 miles off the northeastern coast of England, which sank after being hit by a huge floodwave around 6,100 BC.

"I suspect that myth came from Ireland and it derives from Dogger Bank. I think the memory of Dogger Bank was probably preserved in Ireland for around 3,000 years and became mixed up with the story of Atlantis," he said.

Erlingsson links the boundaries of the Atlantic Empire, as outlined by Plato, with the geographic distribution of megalithic monuments in Europe and Northern Africa, matching Atlantis' temples with well-known burial sites at Newgrange and Knowth, north of Dublin, which pre-date the pyramids.

His book, "Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective: Mapping the Fairy Land," calculates the probability Plato would have had access to geographical data about Ireland as 99.98 percent.

Previous theories about Atlantis have suggested it may have been around the Azores islands 900 miles west of the Portuguese coast, or in the Aegean sea. Others locate it solely in the long-decayed brain of Plato.

"Guns don't kill people....I DO!!"

Hmmmm. Problem is that the artifacts on Ireland that date back as far as that and farther don't reveal an "advanced" civilization ... leastwise, not as Plato relates.

It is true that there are many megalithic tombs sprinkled about the country but it is hard to imagine how those megaliths would survive but evidence of more advanced buildings wouldn't.

Anyway, if Plato's story is of Egyptian origin, I think Taw mentioned this more than once, the Egyptians were looking to the north, past the Aegean Sea and Dardanelles at the Black Sea.

I'm not convinced. Still, it is an interesting observation, and it would explain leprechauns and what-not .

I don't really believe it, either. But I thought I'd post it because it does have some interesting points. However, I got the feeling that Atlantis was much further south. Maybe around the Strait of Gibralter. I could be wrong.

"Guns don't kill people....I DO!!"

I've never really looked into this whole Atlantis thing, so could someone please tell me, how do they know for certain that it really existed? Did they prove it in some way?

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Weren't the people on Atlatnis really civilized and smart and all?
So it can't be Ireland

there are long-standing legends that the British isles are all that remains of a larger Atlantic land mass, sometimes claimed to be the Atlantis of Plato, or more appropriately the fabled Lyonesse of medieval romance. However there is no geophysical evidence for this whatsoever, just some odd myths and strange coastal remains which have a variety of possible explanations.

didn't we do Atlantis recently, in one of our debunkings?

(not grave-digging, I'm just ketching-up)

Yes, twice already in the past 3 months or so. One was tangetially related to Atlantis and the other more directly on subject.

sw, apparently, missed the two previous runs on this saga. You are, of course,
welcome to drone on as per the usual if you feel so inclined. You'd have an appreciative audience of at least one.

Thats pretty kool. I wonder what the Irish think about that.

Life: No one gets out alive.

Interesting. I doubt, however, that the fact that Plato had access to data about Ireland would mean that Ireland was Atlantis... Next week someone'll post that undisputable evidence links it to Iceland. Or something.

Maby stonehenge was once a part of a atlantian building

Anyway, I think it says in Plato's text that Atlantis is:
"There was an island opposite the strait which you call the Pillars of Hercules (Straits of Gibraltar), an island larger than Libya (Africa) and Asia combined;"

And Ireland is, in fact, somewhat smaller than Asia.

Edited by - ~Corsair#01~ on 8/17/2004 12:46:30 PM

could it be america?

I doubt that America would be Atlantis...

Life: No one gets out alive.