Editing Atlantis (section)

===In or near the Mediterranean Sea===

Most of the historically proposed locations are in or near the Mediterranean Sea: islands such as [[Sardinia]],<ref>Valente Poddighe, Paolo. ''Atlantide Sardegna: Isola dei Faraoni'' (Atlantis Sardinia: Island of the Pharaohs). Stampacolor</ref><ref>Frau, Sergio. ''Le Colonne d'Ercole. Un'inchiesta. La prima geografia. Tutt'altra storia''. Nur Neon 2002</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Evin |first=Florence |date=15 August 2015 |title=Was Sardinia home to the mythical civilisation of Atlantis? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/15/bronze-age-sardinia-archaeology-atlantis |access-date=14 January 2022 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> [[Crete]], [[Santorini]] (Thera), [[Sicily]], [[Cyprus]], and [[Malta]]; land-based cities or states such as [[Troy]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Zangger |first=Eberhard |title=The Flood from Heaven: Deciphering the Atlantis legend |location=New York |publisher=William Morrow and Company |date=1993}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2021}} [[Tartessos]], and Tantalis (in the province of [[Manisa]], [[Turkey]]);<ref>{{cite book|last1=James|first1=Peter|last2=Thorpe|first2=Nick|title=Ancient Mysteries|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientmysteries0000jame|url-access=registration|date=1999|publisher=Ballantine Books|location=New York City, New York|isbn=978-0-345-43488-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientmysteries0000jame/page/16 16–41]}}</ref> [[Israel]]-[[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]] or [[Canaan]];{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}} and northwestern Africa,<ref>{{cite web |title=Plato's Atlantis in South Morocco? |url=http://asalas.org/doku.php |publisher=Asalas.org |access-date=27 December 2009 |archive-date=11 December 2009 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091211073030/http://asalas.org/doku.php }}</ref> including the [[Richat Structure]] in [[Mauritania]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article263581168.html |title=Origin of surreal 'Eye of the Sahara' debated – yet again – after NASA shares photo |work=Miami Herald |last=Price |first=Mark |date=22 July 2022 |access-date=6 November 2022}}</ref>

The [[Minoan eruption|Thera eruption]], dated to the seventeenth or sixteenth century BC, caused a large [[tsunami]] that some experts hypothesize devastated the [[Minoan civilization]] on the nearby island of Crete, further leading some to believe that this may have been the catastrophe that inspired the story.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6568053.stm |title=The wave that destroyed Atlantis |first=Harvey |last=Lilley |publisher=BBC News |date=20 April 2007 |access-date=6 December 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Bruins |first=Hendrik J. |year=2008 |title=Geoarchaeological tsunami deposits at Palaikastro (Crete) and the Late Minoan IA eruption of Santorini |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=191–212 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2007.08.017 |bibcode=2008JArSc..35..191B |display-authors=etal |url=https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/6712369/2008JArchaeolSciBruins.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/6712369/2008JArchaeolSciBruins.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live|hdl=11370/01bb92b9-dc59-47b2-bac7-63ad80afb745 |s2cid=43944032 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> In the area of the [[Black Sea]] the following locations have been proposed: [[Bosporus]] and [[Ancomah]] (a legendary place near [[Trabzon]]).

Others have noted that, before the sixth century BC, the mountains on either side of the [[Laconian Gulf]] were called the "Pillars of Hercules",<ref name="Davis, J.L 1990"/><ref name="Castleden, Rodney 1998 p6"/> and they could be the geographical location being described in ancient reports upon which Plato was basing his story. The mountains stood at either side of the southernmost gulf in Greece, the largest in the [[Peloponnese]], and that gulf opens onto the Mediterranean Sea.

If from the beginning of discussions, misinterpretation of Gibraltar as the location rather than being at the Gulf of Laconia, would lend itself to many erroneous concepts regarding the location of Atlantis. Plato may have not been aware of the difference. The Laconian pillars open to the south toward Crete and beyond which is Egypt. The [[Thera eruption]] and the [[Late Bronze Age collapse]] affected that area and might have been the devastation to which the sources used by Plato referred. Significant events such as these would have been likely material for tales passed from one generation to another for almost a thousand years.