“The quest to find the lost city of Atlantis has begun in earnest off Cyprus's southern shores.”

“(Sarmast) goes one step further than other Atlantologists in claiming to have vindicated Plato's narrative as not just a philosopher's allegory.”

The Guardian, London

“Point-by-point observations and black-and-white illustrations provocatively drive home the hypothesis in this superb and iconoclastic account that is recommended reading for anyone curious about the saga of Atlantis.”

Midwest Book Review

“In Sarmast's new book, the search for Atlantis comes to life, with maps, diagrams, figures, charts, and more...we could discover the reality behind the legend.”
 

E.A. Lombardi - 4 star rating
About.com

“A compelling read…firmly grounded in historical and scientific research. Sarmast’s comprehensive analysis should…interest anyone who has ever wondered about this mysterious lost continent.”

Richard Mackenzie
Mysteries Magazine

Sarmast does some fascinating research for his proposal that Atlantis was part of the island of Cyprus. This is a richly illustrated volume that belongs in every Atlantis library!"

David Hatcher Childress

“One of the most convincing theories of Atlantis that, in my opinion, has ever been suggested.”

Daily Mail London

“Something amazing is going to happen very soon in the Mediterranean Sea off Cyprus: they are going to uncover the lost island of Atlantis.”

The Independent, London

"Soon at hand could be one of the greatest discoveries mankind has ever made."

The World Today, Canada

"Robert Sarmast is a modern day “Indiana Jones."

Radio National Australia

Book review by E.A. Lombardi

About.com Classic Literature Department

In "Discovery of Atlantis," Robert Sarmast discusses the origins of the Atlantis legend, starting with the first written records by Plato more than 2,000 years ago. He takes a look at Plato's famous works, "Timaeus" and "Critia," explaining how these two works were influenced by even older manuscripts, which have since been lost.

In Sarmast's new book, the search for Atlantis comes to life, with maps, diagrams, figures, charts, and more. Sarmast even offers excerpts from Plato's "Timaeus" and "Critia," both translated by Benjamin Jowett, "to familiarize the reader with the original description of the lost island of Atlantis." Those first dialogues "unwittingly launched one of the greatest mysteries of all time." He explains that Plato's Atlantis legend has "maintained a grasp on the human imagination ever since.

--Atlantis Legend in Perspective

In his discussion of Atlantis, Sarmast puts the legend into a larger context of world mythology. He touches upon some of the most famous stories in literary history and mythology, drawing from the Bible, Plutarch, Herodotus, Milton's "Paradise Lost," Ovid's "Metamorphoses," Bacon's "The New Atlantis," Bellamy's "The Atlantis Myth," the "Gilgamesh Epic," Campbell's "The Mask of God," Jung, Dalley's "Myths of Mesopotamia," and more.

In his journey, Sarmast sees himself as "a storyteller, researcher, sleuth, and explorer," as he tracks down every fragment of myth and legend that has even the slightest bit to do with a lost civilization that could be linked to Atlantis. As he traces the legend, it only grows in our imagination, becoming ever-more popular as it continues to be explored in books, movies, television programs, and other multimedia adventures. Perhaps we can explain the legend's popularity by exploring how the legend has evolved in our "collective memory."

Placed into the context of world mythology, the Atlantis legend is a timeless classic, complete with a Paradise civilization, mysterious people (the Atlanteans, children of the gods), human arrogance, calamity, a flood, destruction, and an age-old mystery, which has yet to be unraveled. Sarmast quotes Ignatius Donnelly, who once wrote: "[Atlantis] was the true Antediluvian world; the Garden of Eden; the Gardens of Hesperides; the Elysian Fields; the Gardens of Alcinous; the Mesomphalos; the Olympos; the Asgard of the traditions of the ancient nations; representing the universal memory of a great land, where early mankind dwelt for ages in peace and happiness."
 

--The End of an Era

We dream of a lost civilization that might someday be re-discovered, a place that might tell us something about ancient peoples, their literature and legends. By discovering the lost civilization of Atlantis, we could reach back into the past, rediscovering a lost part of ourselves. Sarmast says, "The ancients believed that the demise of Atlantis marked the end of an era on earth--the Golden Age, when gods dwelled among humanity and ruled according to the wisdom of heaven." What could the discovery of that place tell us? Now, we can only imagine such a breakthrough; but if Sarmast's theories and explorations are correct, we could discover the reality behind the legend.
 

Book review by Richard Mackenzie

Mysteries Magazine

Of all the mysteries of the ancient world, the most contested is undoubtedly the story of Atlantis. Was Atlantis an actual place or simply a fantasy concocted by Plato? Opinions vary widely on the subject, but Discovery of Atlantis, an intriguing new volume by Robert Sarmast, will certainly provide plenty of fodder for believers and skeptics alike.

Sarmast not only believes that Atlantis existed, but that he has found its exact location. Discounting theories that have placed the Atlantean continent in places as diverse as the Bahamas, Bolivia, and the middle of the Atlantic, he concludes that only one place on Earth fits the bill: just off the southern coast of the island of Cyprus.

Not only is this an area that the people of the ancient world would have been familiar with (unlike locations far from the Straits of Gibraltar that they almost certainly never visited), but it is also close enough to both Greece and Egypt, that it is plausible that their chroniclers would have had almost first-hand knowledge of the cataclysm. This is important because Plato supposedly based his story on Greek and Egyptian accounts of the disaster.

Further proof of Atlantis’ location comes in the form of oceanographic research and sonar mapping of the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Not only does the area off the coast of Cyprus fit the dimensions mentioned by Plato, but a small mound within that rectangular plain seems to match the description of the concentric rings of walls and canals that purportedly surrounded the capital city of Atlantis. Core samples from the Mediterranean also show a previously unknown pattern of evaporation and sudden, cataclysmic flooding within the past 10,000+ years, that could easily be evidence of not only the story of Atlantis, but also the Biblical flood.

Discovery of Atlantis is a compelling read that is firmly grounded in historical and scientific research. Sarmast does an excellent job of covering the original source material, even including an appendix containing the relevant chapters of Plato’s famous dialogues Timaeus and Critias, for those who wish to delve deeper into the story. Some readers, however, may object to his constant reliance on a text that is nearly 2,400 years old, and his extrapolation of details that could also be interpreted in other ways.

Covering historical, archaeological, and oceanographic aspects of the Atlantis mystery, Sarmast’s comprehensive analysis should hold the interest of anyone who has ever wondered about this mysterious lost continent.

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