By Miltos Aggelopoulos, Jim Zachiotis & Maria Zafiri

One of the most unexplainable mysteries in the whole history is the legend of Atlantis. According to Plato, it was an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and it founders were half god and half human. Moreover, they had created a utopian civilization, had developed advanced technology and they were known for their navy.

  The kingdom of Atlantis was by far one of the biggest and strongest realms in the ancient world and also was religiously dedicated to the god of water and the seas, Poseidon.Their home was made up of concentric islands separated by wide moats and linked by a canal that penetrated to the center. The lush islands contained gold, silver and other precious metals, and supported an abundance of rare, exotic wildlife. There was a great capital city on the central island.

  Unfortunately, in one cataclysmic night, the gods sent a battalion of fire and earthquakes so intense that the Utopian kingdom of Atlantis sank deep into the ocean, never to be found again. Τhat was because the gods decided to punish the citizens of Atlantis for their bad behaviour and arrogance.

  Few, if any, scientists think Atlantis actually existed. Ocean explorer Robert Ballard notes that «no Nobel laureates» have said that what Plato wrote about Atlantis is true. Still, Ballard says, the legend of Atlantis is a «logical» one since cataclysmic floods and volcanic explosions have happened throughout history, including one event that had some similarities to the story of the destruction of Atlantis.

 About 3,600 years ago, a massive volcanic eruption devastated the island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea near Greece. At the time, a highly advanced society of Minoans lived on Santorini. The Minoan civilization disappeared suddenly at about the same time as the volcanic eruption.But Ballard doesn’t think Santorini was Atlantis, because the time of the eruption on that island doesn’t coincide with when Plato said Atlantis was destroyed.

  On the other hand , Romm believes Plato created the story of Atlantis to convey some of his philosophical theories. «He was dealing with a number of issues, themes that run throughout his work,» he says. «His ideas about divine versus human nature, ideal societies, the gradual corruption of human society—these ideas are all found in many of his works. Atlantis was a different vehicle to get at some of his favorite themes.

Whether or not the island of Atlantis existed will  remain unsolved.