Atlantis

Atlantis is the name of a mythical island or continent, believed to have been sunk beneath the ocean by an earthquake. An account of Atlantis was written by Greek philosopher Plato in about 350 B.C. in his dialogues Timaeus and the Critias. The name Atlantis is derived from “Island of Atlas,” Atlas being the Titan condemned to hold the sky on his shoulders after defeat by the Olympian gods. Athenian statesman Solon, an ancestor of Plato,rift gold reportedly heard the story from an Egyptian priest and named the land.
Plato may have also drawn on Greek folktales.

According to Plato, Atlantis existed in the 10th millennium B.C. He described it as a large island in the Western Ocean, a body of water beyond the known world, west of the Pillars of Hercules. With powerful kings, the Atlanteans supposedly extended their domain deep into Europe and Africa and amassed great wealth. They succumbed to greed, however, and attempted to enlarge their empire to the east. When their armies reached Athens, they met with defeat. The Athenians then liberated Atlantis. In a night of divine judgment, however, storms and earthquakes caused Atlantis to be swallowed up by the sea. The occupying Athenians were also drowned, leaving only a remnant from which Greek civilization was to be rebuilt.

Atlantis is sometimes associated with the island of Crete to the southeast of the Greek mainland in the MEDITERRANEAN SEA and the Minoans. Minoan civilization had been the center of culture and military power from about 3000 to 1000 B.C.,rift gold before the ascension of the Greeks, and an earthquake or earthquakes may have contributed to its decline. Plato may have heard stories of this earlier civilization, and used an account of it to demonstrate the superiority of a republican form of government over a monarchy.