Archaeologist shares proof of 'lost city of Atlantis' after making groundbreaking discovery
For many people, the lost city of Atlantis belongs in the realms of fantasy, a story of some majestic ancient city sunk beneath the waves as punishment for its hubris.
The famous Greek philosopher Plato made mention of a port situated beyond 'the pillars of Hercules' that was consumed by the sea, and now a man believes he's found proof that such a city existed and put together a documentary about it.
Speaking to LADbible, Michael Donnellan explained how, along with the help of research company Merlin Burrows, he was able to finally uncover the mythical city in southern Europe.
"Timothy Akers, bless his soul, one of my dearest friends, one day said to me, after eight months working together, said, ‘How do you like southern Spain?'" he told us.
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"And I said, 'Well, it sounds pretty exciting. What do you have there?'"
It turns out what's in southern Spain is the city of Cadiz.
Out in the water there are ancient stone structures that form fishing corrals, and at first he didn't find very much beyond that, but in 2018, a storm churned up the area and he made a discovery that led him to believe the lost city of Atlantis could be just below him.
He said: "It's funny because I actually filmed above those fishing corrals in 2016 with a drone and I remember thinking to myself, ‘oh, there's nothing on this stretch of beach’.
"And I was totally wrong, because when we went back in 2018 following this very large storm that swept away all of this sediment. I said, 'Holy crap'.
"You could see these rectangular formations."
He found more evidence of man-made structures beneath the water, including 'seven and a half meter tall walls' which he suggested could have been much taller than that as they were partly buried in sediment.
Donnellan said: "We were finding carved stones that where you scraped away the algae and the little growth matter, and you start to see that there's an abundant variety of different types of cut stones, which is not consistent with natural structures that you find along the coastline.
"When you compare it to Plato's texts, when we compare our finding to Plato's text it all coincides, every element."
While the structures beneath the sea are very old the documentary maker is sure they are not Phoenician or Roman.
For the researcher, Plato's writing was essentially the bible and he said his discoveries 'all fit into this narrative that Plato wrote 2400 years ago'.
Once he'd found what he thought was the site of Atlantis, he needed a proper look and for that, he needed something called a multi axis echo sounder.
Donnellan describes it as 'like a paint brush' that you use to scan the seabed beneath a boat, requiring them to sail slowly across an area and fill in the scans of what the ground below looks like, and it gave him the moment he was sure he'd found Atlantis.
He said: "It’s a really long process. I think we spent the first day we scanned about seven hours out there, and the next morning, I received the actual point cloud to the 3D scans.
"This is using a multi axis echo sounder. It's a centimetric scanning technique. It's about as advanced as it gets.
"It was only a quarter of this whole site, if you will. And the second I saw these equally spaced circular walls, it was this sort of a moment where my the hair went up on end.
"Somebody made that. And I got on the phone with my dive guys, like, ‘are you guys seeing this?’"
His scans, which feature in the documentary, paint a picture of relatively evenly spaced circular walls, saying that Plato 'talks about this circular, famously, the circular capital city'.
While someone suggesting they've found proof that Atlantis existed might draw some scepticism, Donnellan is sure of what he's found and and invites people to look at his discoveries.
He said: “I know what it is I have. I just believe what we found can't be anything.
"But this is what I say. ‘Look, it matches it every this is this. This is this. Look for yourself.’
"If it isn't Atlantis, it's even more interesting. That's what I always say. If it isn't Atlantis, it's even more interesting."
He says that when Plato discusses Atlantis he says 'we're now going to move from the realm of fantasy to the realm of fact' and suggests 'it would be highly unlikely' for the Greek philosopher to have made it all up, because 'he didn't invent those names' associated with Atlantis.
The archaeologist said he was 'used to people saying, no, no, no’, but told LADbible that it often transpired that something else was going on.
"They're either people who are doing their own research, and they're adamant about not letting anybody trample on their territory, or what they think is their territory, which it isn't," he explained.
"Then when you find out that they've done their own research, or they're trying to do their own television show, you start to realize, ‘Ah, okay, I get it’."
Beyond the possible discovery of Atlantis, Donnellan reckons that his discovery proves human civilisation was doing certain things long before we initially thought.
If you want to see more of what the archaeologist found and decide for yourself then the documentary ATLANTICA is due to release soon.
Topics: World News, History, Science, Documentaries, Archaeology
Joe Harker