 |
|
Plato wrote Atlantis had been
destroyed by a natural disaster in 9,000 BC Photo: HAMID REZA IRANI
|
The film, Finding Atlantis, screened by the National Geographic Channel in the US and fronted by Professor Richard Freund, from Hartford University in Connecticut.
Professor Freund explained how he led a pursuit to find the lost civilisation, believed by many to be an ancient Greek myth, by using deep-ground radar, digital mapping and satellite imagery.
"I think we found the best candidate for what was the beginnings of civilisation ... one of the largest and most ancient cities at the bottom of a huge marsh."
He contends that Atlantis, described by Plato in 360BC, in Spain's Donaña National Park, north of Cadiz, and was wiped out by a giant tsunami. Plato wrote it had been destroyed by a natural disaster in 9,000BC.
"This is the power of tsunamis," he said. "It is so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about."
He said that some of Atlantis's inhabitants had fled a tsunami to establish similar "memorial cities" which he had identified in central Spain.
His film company, Associated Producers of Canada, added: "Besides identifying the location of the city, they discovered a stele that may have stood at the entrance to the ancient civilisation. It records the long lost symbol of Atlantis."
The film's claims however were dismissed as having no reliable basis in scientific fact and of misinterpreting partial results by an investigation by a team of distinguished Spanish scientists. Since 2005 they have been working on the site at a huge national park and bird sanctuary near Cadiz.
Juan Villarías-Robles, an anthropologist with the Spanish government's scientific research body, CSIC, says Professor Freund appeared sensationalised their work.
Mr Villarías-Robles was part of a team investigating ancient geomorphology and settlements in Donaña, Europe's largest wetlands.
He said satellite photos of Donaña's massive wetlands, west of Gibraltar, seemed to show buried rectangular buildings and concentric circles of a buried city near a beach.
"Richard Freund was a newcomer to our project and appeared to be involved in his own very controversial issue concerning King Solomon's search for ivory and gold in Tartessos, the well documented settlement in the Donaña area established in the first millennium BC.
"He became involved in what we were doing and provided funding for probes through his connections with National Geographic and Associated Producers.
"He left and the film company told us the documentary would be finished in April or May. But we did not hear from him and are very surprised it has appeared so soon and makes such fanciful claims."
Mr Villarías-Robles, who also dismissed claims of the "memorial cities", said his team planned to offer their own conclusions later this year
The theory that Atlantis is buried in the Spanish wetlands is the latest in a long line of suggested locations. In 2004, US ocean researchers said they were convinced they had found evidence of Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus. Others include various Mediterranean islands, Central America and even Antarctica.
Edward Owen Reposted From The Telegraph