Could Santorini have been Atlantis?
Many serious investigators think that the source of the legend is actually the Minoan eruption of Santorini. Why? There are some fairly convincing arguments: 1. Plato tells about a circular island with concentric structures. Santorini today does have an impressive concentric geographic setting and had it also before the Minoan eruption. This has come out as a result of detailed geologic studies during the past 20 years, see the chapter of the reconstruction of the ring-shaped pre-Minoan island with a central shield. Furthermore Heiken and McCoy (1990) indicated that the famous picture in the West House from the Akrotiri excavations most likely represents a relatively naturalistic portrait of Thera. It shows an inhabited and flowering island landscape and the departing Therean fleet, and actually some concentric water-land ring structures are visible, too. 2. Plato writes that Atlantis was situated in the ocean, beyond the “Pillars of Hercules”. The “Pillars of Hercules” were at Platon’
