Atlantis is said to have been a continent-sized body of land that existed about 10,000 CE located between North America and Europe amid what is now the North Atlantic Ocean. It then suddenly disappeared in a cataclysm. First reported in Plato's dialogues Critias and Timaeus written circa 400 BCE, the tale was revived in modern times by the American Ignatius Donelly in his novel Atlantis: The Antediluvian World first published in 1882. It is still believed by some as having been a real place, the original place of civilization.
What evidence is there that it ever existed? No geological evidence has been found of a submerged continent beneath the North Atlantic. Instead, deep sea surveys show the ocean floor spreading continuously apart between two immense continental plates of the earth's crust. There is no evidence of any continent falling between these, or ever having existed there. No antique or archaeological artifacts of undisputed Atlantean origin exist or have been found anywhere. If this grand civilization had existed and had spread around the world, finding some remnants must be expected. The evidence for such an extraordinary claim as Atlantis simply does not exist. In the absence of evidence Atlantis must be considered a myth.
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