Mysteries

The Island of Santorini and the Myth of Atlantis

The island of Santorini is one of the places prominent in the speculations of professional and amateur historians and writers who have tried to unravel the myth of Atlantis, which was originally portrayed in the Dialogues of the Greek philosopher Plato. Despite the skepticism of serious scientists and archaeologists, proponents of the Santorini-as-Atlantis theory have pointed to the similarities between Plato’s description of Atlantis, and the archeological, seismological, and vulcanological (study of volcanoes) evidence found on the island of Santorini, to support their arguments.

Plato, for example, mentions a location in Atlantis which had a profusion of water that was accumulated from surrounding hills. Excavations at Knossos and Akroteri, in the island of Santorini, have unearthed places that match Plato’s description. Similarly, the palace at Knossos has an uncanny resemblance to Plato’s description of the palace of Atlantis as an Acropolis-like, multi-level structure situated atop a terraced and leveled hill. According to Plato, the outer walls of the palace supposedly “shined like silver.” The followers of the Santorini-as-Atlantis hypothesis find support for their arguments in the silver-like shining properties of gypsum (a kind of crystalline stone) that was used to build the palace’s huge foundation blocks. Moreover, the various kinds of rocks found in Santorini match the “white, black, and red” rocks that existed in Atlantis as per the description of Plato. The depiction of Santorini in the numerous frescoes discovered in the island can also be interpreted to resemble the layout of Plato’s island city of Atlantis, with its concentric areas of land and water and the deep canal connecting them to the sea.

The final and apparently decisive argument of the proponents of the Santorini-as Atlantis theory is the abrupt demise of the Minoan civilization of Santorini (and nearby Crete) that parallels the sudden destruction of Atlantis as described by Plato. According to many scholars, the island was destroyed around 1,500 BC when the Stroggili volcano erupted and collapsed unleashing multiple tsunamis that devastated the Mediterranean and destroyed Crete also. In his Timaeus, Plato describes the utter destruction of Atlantis in “one day and night” when “there occurred portentous earthquakes and floods,” when their “…warriors were swallowed up by the earth,” and “Atlantis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished…”

Santorini as the fabled Atlantis: Fact or fiction?

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