Per the legend, atlantis was a chain of islands connecting Europe and America; when the last one of those sunk, Sahara had risen, turned into a desert, and the tidal waves washed away Egypt.
Per legend, it’s past the Mediterranean, past the pillars of Hercules and towards the apples of Hesperides.
Well, Plato clearly thought it was in the Atlantic Ocean, but the legend came via Solon from an Egyptian priest. The whole point of the story was that Athenians didn’t know their own history— as they fought off the Atlantians.
There are a few reasons to believe that it refers to the pillars of Hercules in the Black Sea— and the apples of Hesperides are in the East (first stars seen at night) by the mountains where Atlas held the earth (Caucasus mountains).
Just saying, underwater archaeology in the Black Sea is going to be very, very exciting.
Reading the Plato on it, vaguely sounds like someone describing continental drift, but in a way that would be easier for people of the time to understand.
I'm just imagining this im sure, they couldn't have known about it.
There's islands out there (canaries, azores). My guess is a big tsunami event happened, washed out some town, survivors show up in ports around the med saying the place has sunk because that's a pretty good descriptor of a tsunami for ancient people, and the legend goes from there.
The melting of the icecap raised the oceans worldwide by 400 feet. Sometimes very quickly (as meltwater lakes broke through barriers). (OTOH, tsunamis go away.)
