Says he's found sunken site of Atlantis

By Helena Smith, Globe Correspondent, 10/11/2003

ATHENS -- After nearly 10 years of study, a US researcher says he has assembled evidence to prove that the fabled lost island of Atlantis existed off the shores of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.

Robert Sarmast says Atlantis was not simply a figment of the imagination of the Greek philosopher Plato, who vividly described the seafaring civilization and how it had been "swallowed up by the earth," but a real place replete with stone temples, bridges, canals, and roads.

His data show that its remnants lie on the seabed off the southern coast of Cyprus, said Sarmast, author of the recently published "Discovery of Atlantis: The Startling Case for the Island of Cyprus."

"What we have discovered is a hidden land mass that fits Plato's famed description of Atlantis almost exactly," the Los Angeles-based writer said by phone from his office. "We're talking about a 95 percent accuracy rate" matching up evidence with Plato's descriptions. "That's either a huge coincidence, or it's it."

Pinpointing the location between Greece and Egypt made "perfect sense," he said, since these were the lands whence the myth of Atlantis originated.

"This was the cradle of civilization, the source of the first alphabets and form of writing," said Sarmast, an Iranian-American and self-proclaimed mythologist who said he has been fascinated with Atlantis since boyhood.

Sarmast built upon the research of Russian and Israeli scientists, who reported discovering a land mass off Cyprus in 1989. Using state-of-the-art sonar technology, he said, he was able to discern what would be the island's geographical features, including its capital city.

The sonar depicted the topographic conditions of the eastern Mediterranean sea floor, and digital evidence pinpointed its longitude, latitude, and depth. The stretch of sunken land is depicted in a series of 3D bathymetric maps and models.

Oceanographic equipment was provided by the Texas-based Heritage Standard Corp., an oil and gas survey group that spent $500,000 on the research.

"I've given the maps, the details; now it's up to others to go and look for it," Sarmast said.

Archeologists who specialize in the region were not convinced. No evidence thus far has proved that Atlantis belongs to any other place than the realm of fantasy, most said.

"Atlantis is a myth, a literary construct of a far-off world, a perfect golden age," said Stephen V. Tracy, director of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. "To try and demythologize it by finding the actual place is simply wrong-headed. Good literature resonates with people, but myths such as this are meant to be symbolic."

Plato, writing around 360 BC in his renowned dialogues "Timaeus" and "Critias," described how Atlantis had been destroyed by earthquakes and floods around 9600 BC. Atlantis, Plato wrote, "was an island greater in extent than Libya and Asia." The kingdom "had a soil the best in the world, and abundance of water, and in the heaven above an excellently attempered climate."

Citizens were so blessed under the rule of its 10 princes that few, if ever, were compelled to engage in physical labor, the philosopher wrote. His narrative was based on accounts of Solon, the Athenian legislator of the sixth century BC who, in turn, was told the tale by Egyptian priests. In recent years, Atlantis is said to have been found at the top of volcanoes and the bottom of seas; off the Azores islands, the Americas, Bolivia, Cuba, Crete, and Antarctica.

Sarmast said he spent years deciphering Plato's dialogues, matching 48 of the 50 physical clues that the ancient provided about Atlantis. They include the philosopher's assertion that some of the island's highest peaks may still be above water, and the discovery on the land mass of a long rectangular plain described as the location of the kingdom's capital.

On Cyprus, the alleged discovery has been greeted with barely concealed mirth. If Sarmast's theory is true, the island nation, a popular holiday resort, may be all that remains of Atlantis's mountainous region.

"If proved correct, it will be fantastic news for our country," said a government spokesman, Kypros Chrysostomides. "We will, of course, look positively on supporting further research."