Pod Insights So Supernatural DISAPPEARED: The Lost City of Atlantis About this episode In his writings, the Greek philosopher Plato spoke of an ancient civilization known as Atlantis. Ever since, others have added to the legend, saying the society had advanced technologies that disappeared with the kingdom in a cataclysmic event. And while Atlantis’s existence has been hotly contested, there’s modern-day evidence that suggests it was actually real.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:02 Speaker 00 So, little fact about me. I am dying to go to Italy. I mean, everything about it, the food, the language, the art. It feels almost mythical in a sense, because there's just so much romance, so much history, especially Venice. So when I heard that there was a clock on this place, I realized, okay, like, time to go, time to book the ticket. Yet you heard me right. Scientists don't think Venice will be around for centuries to come, because it's sinking about 2 millimeters per year. And that might seem like nothing, but trust me, it's adding up. The experts say by 2150, Venice will be completely underwater.
0:45 Speaker 00 So, this has totally changed my mind on today's topic. A story I sort of assumed was legend now seems entirely possible. The lost city of Atlantis. It was thought to be this incredibly advanced civilization filled with beautiful architecture, central power operated by a giant crystal. It even had television. Only, the entire place supposedly sank to the bottom of the ocean somewhere around 9,600 BCE. The story of Atlantis has primarily come from one source: the Greek philosopher Plato, which is why many people think it's nothing more than fiction.
1:27 Speaker 00 That, and the fact that no one's really been able to find any compelling evidence of it. Until recently. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is So Supernatural.
2:08 Yvette Gentile? Welcome back to another episode of So Supernatural. I'm Yvette Gentile.
2:14 Rasha Pecoraro? And I'm her sister, Rasha Pecoraro. And today, we're talking about a topic that I have an incredibly unique, personal connection with: the lost city of Atlantis. Okay, now bear with me. It's gonna be a little bit of a long story, but entertaining nonetheless. So, as you know, Yvette and I have different fathers. And our mom got pregnant by my father. And she basically told him if he was in the operating room, or in the hospital room when I was born, he could name me whatever he wanted. And so, the ultrasound said that I was supposed to be a boy.
2:54 Rasha Pecoraro? So, in December of 1978, when I came out a girl, he had no clue what to name me. So, he ended up disappearing for like, three days. And I was unnamed for three days. And he ended up coming back. And he said that he read this story about the lost continent of Atlantis. And that it was a beautiful story about this princess named Lady Rasha, who ended up going down with Atlantis when it fell, because she wanted to protect Atlantis. And so, he named me Rasha. But, to this day-
3:30 Yvette Gentile? Wait for it.
3:32 Rasha Pecoraro? I have never found this book. I am sure he was smoking a whole lot of pakalolo. You can Google that to figure out what that is. But, the funny thing is, is the name he had originally picked out was... Do you remember, Yvette?
3:47 Yvette Gentile? I think I do. It was Dear God, Jesus Christ, I Am. I mean, something so far out there.
3:53 Rasha Pecoraro? That was my middle name. Evolution was supposed to be my first name.
3:56 Yvette Gentile? Lord, help us all. I know, when he told mom this, and then mom told me, I thought to myself, "There is no way in this earth that my sister is gonna be named that. I'm gonna fight tooth and nail. There's no way." I don't know what he was smoking, but it was some heavy-duty stuff.
4:14 Rasha Pecoraro? But, you liked Rasha.
4:15 Yvette Gentile? Well, yes, of course. I love Rasha.
4:19 Yvette Gentile? Well, regardless of if there was ever a lady Russia or not, when it comes to ancient legends, the lost city of Atlantis is sort of the mother of them all. I mean, even if you've never read the original story, you've probably heard of this mythical lost kingdom in some way, shape, or form. But let's start at the beginning.
4:44 Rasha Pecoraro? The earliest recorded mention of Atlantis comes from the Greek philosopher Plato in the year 360 BCE. He's famous for writing some of the earliest arguments about ethics, justice, love, and knowledge. So basically, he's kind of a big deal. The writings are so profound, people still study them to this day. But his essays also mention an incredible story, one that Plato seems to portray as being true. A story of a great kingdom that existed 9,000 years before Plato himself was even born. It was called Atlantis.
5:26 Yvette Gentile? For context, that means Atlantis was thriving just a few centuries after saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths had gone extinct. And it would be another few thousand years after that, before written language was invented. So if true, we're talking about a super ancient civilization.
5:49 Rasha Pecoraro? But even though it was really old, Plato says that the people of Atlantis were far ahead of any other human beings because they had a massive empire. So imagine taking all of northern Africa and tacking on half the country of Turkey. That's how big Atlantis supposedly was. The city was said to be somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, separated by a very narrow waterway. So according to Plato, there was a huge continent on one side and another continent on the other.
6:23 Yvette Gentile? Plato wrote that the city was circular, surrounded by islands and moats. So you can kind of think of this like a dartboard. In the center, or the bull's eye, was the downtown hub, full of amazing temples and towers and homes. This was also where the richest people lived in the biggest, nicest houses. There was a moat circling around it, then another ring of land with more buildings on it. And they were separated by another moat and another ring of land. So you get the idea. But Atlantis isn't famous for its layout. It's famous for being a paradise. The people who lived there
7:06 Yvette Gentile? were incredibly wise and powerful, and they used their powers for good. At least, at first.
7:14 Rasha Pecoraro? According to Plato, they built this amazing society. It was wealthy, beautiful, and pretty much a utopia. And I wish I could tell you more about some of their achievements. But Plato's story is actually kind of short. He doesn't go into much detail. All Plato says is that eventually, the people there became arrogant. They thought that they had life all figured out. And even worse, some of their leaders were dishonest and corrupt. They went to war with less powerful civilizations around them, knowing their enemies didn't even stand a chance. Before you knew it, the Atlantean people were oppressing and mistreating everyone.
7:58 Rasha Pecoraro? And this made the ancient gods incredibly angry. They decided to punish Atlantis by sending what Plato described as "one terrible night of fire and earthquakes."
8:12 Yvette Gentile? If you ask me, that sounds like a poetic description of a volcanic explosion. Or maybe a really destructive meteor shower.
8:21 Rasha Pecoraro? Yeah, I definitely err on the side of it being a volcano. But whatever it was, this natural disaster destroyed Atlantis. The entire continent supposedly sank to the bottom of the ocean, and its citizens were never seen or heard from again.
8:38 Yvette Gentile? Now, a lot of people hear this story and think, "Okay, it's a work of fiction." I mean, continents are big, to put it mildly. If an entire landmass sank into the sea, I mean, surely someone would have found evidence of it, even back in ancient Greece. So for centuries after Plato's death, his writings spread around. But most people say the story of Atlantis is a myth, or an allegory of a power-hungry society that collapsed. And nobody has any reason to think otherwise. Not until 1492, when Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to discover there's actually two continents
9:22 Yvette Gentile? on the other side of the ocean. Continents that no European, African, or Asian ever realized were there. Which makes people wonder, "Well, okay, wait a second. If there's entire landmasses out there we haven't explored, maybe the story of Atlantis isn't that far-fetched after all."
9:48 Rasha Pecoraro? Well, I know that talking about Christopher Columbus can be problematic. However, I digress. Anyway, something similar happens in 1870, when a German man named Heinrich Schliemann finds something just as stunning. Heinrich is an amateur archaeologist with no training whatsoever. But he gets word that an acquaintance of his has just purchased some land in Turkey. And there's a big mound on the property, almost like something's buried there. Since Heinrich has a lot of money, the acquaintance lets him start digging, probably for a price. Now Heinrich, who is pretty new to this whole archaeology thing, basically shows up with little more than a shovel.
10:32 Rasha Pecoraro? As he and his team start digging deeper and deeper, he realizes he's found something that will rewrite the planet's history. He's just discovered the ruins of the lost city of Troy.
10:47 Yvette Gentile? Up until that year, many people thought Troy was fictional too. And a lot of them had read Homer's Iliad, which tells the story of the Trojan War. And that's the legendary conflict that ended with the Greek army sneaking into the city of Troy in that giant wooden horse. A lot of people assume the city of Troy never existed, and neither did the Trojan War. But when Heinrich comes forward and says, "Hey, turns out Troy is real, and here it is," that gets people thinking. Maybe a lot of the myths that we used to dismiss as fiction are actually based on true stories, including Atlantis.
11:31 Rasha Pecoraro? Well, in 1882, just 12 years after Troy is discovered, a guy named Ignatius Donnelly enters the chat. He's a former US congressman and state legislator. So he's pretty well-known and respected at the time. In fact, Ignatius is said to be a champion for equality and fairness. Sounds like my kind of guy. He spends his political career trying to pass laws that make life better for low-income, working-class people. After he temporarily retires from politics, though, Ignatius picks up a hobby. He wants to learn more about the people of the world, present and past.
12:14 Rasha Pecoraro? For months, he studies art, language, literature, mythology, religion. The list goes on and on. He's particularly interested in learning about other cultures outside the United States. And certain themes start popping up in his research over and over again.
12:33 Yvette Gentile? If you've ever tried to learn a foreign language, you might notice how some words are very similar from one to the next. Just take for instance, Buonanotte, which means good night in Italian. In French, Bonne nuit means good night. And also, buenas noches. I mean, these are all very similar, but different because they all derive from Latin. Or if you've spent a lot of time studying religions, you might know that certain themes and stories are fairly universal. Well, Ignatius thinks there has to be a reason for all of this. In particular, he figures that these cultures share similarities because they also share a connected past.
13:17 Yvette Gentile? And once his research is done, Ignatius feels confident enough about his theory to publish it in a book. It claims that all modern day cultures evolved from one particular ancient civilization, Atlantis. Not only that, but he thinks he knows where the lost city used to be.
13:47 Rasha Pecoraro? In 1882, a former US congressman named Ignatius Donnelly is making the most out of his temporary retirement. He studies all of the world's languages, art, religions, and cultures. After reviewing this wealth of information, he publishes his book called Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. It says that Atlantis was a real, physical place, and back in the day, it was massive.
14:17 Yvette Gentile? His argument is basically that the Atlantic Ocean didn't exist when Atlantis was around. Instead, the ancient kingdom stretched all the way from North America to Europe and Africa. Essentially, the world was all one giant landmass, kind of like how many scientists believe all the continents used to be connected as one called Pangaea. Except Ignatius says that Atlantis was in the center of them all. And that's why he thinks Atlantis was the literal middleman for all of these cultures. It traded with its neighbors, exchanging languages, products, art styles. The list goes on and on.
15:03 Rasha Pecoraro? Except Ignatius doesn't think that that's the only thing they were sharing. His theory says that most of the world's belief systems actually stem from Atlantis. So here's an example. Ignatius learns that the Hindu religion includes a group of gods called, and bear with me because I'm not sure if I'm saying this right. I did the research, but I'm just gonna try. They were called the Aditya. He also knows that some ancient people probably called those who lived in Atlantis, the Adites. Ignatius thinks Aditya and Adites sound pretty similar. So those words must mean the same thing in his mind.
15:46 Rasha Pecoraro? And perhaps the Adites, the people of Atlantis, are actually this group of Hindu gods. Like, maybe the people of India met some Atlanteans and started worshiping them. Then a whole religion grew around them.
16:03 Yvette Gentile? Ignatius then takes this one step further. He figures this must be true of all the other ancient gods too. You know, the ones from Greece and Rome and from all the indigenous American religions. Maybe they're all based on the Atlantean people. He also suggests that biblical stories like the ones about the Garden of Eden are actually about the destruction of Atlantis. Basically, humanity used to live in paradise. Then we lost the utopia forever because we made the gods angry.
16:38 Rasha Pecoraro? As for how Atlantis was destroyed, Ignatius thinks a volcano erupted, blasting the continent into pieces. I totally think this too. Then the waters of the ocean rushed in, drowning the people who used to live there. He also says some survivors hopped on boats and ended up fleeing to Mexico and Ireland. He says that was to ensure Atlantean culture would continue to spread through the Americas and Eurasia. That's also why stories like Noah's Ark and other myths about floods pop up in so many different societies. Because according to Ignatius, those legends are all that remains of the accounts about
17:21 Rasha Pecoraro? a real historical event: the destruction of Atlantis.
17:26 Yvette Gentile? He says not only was the destruction real, it was one of the greatest disasters in all of human history. Ignatius writes that when Atlantis collapsed, the world lost so much technology, culture, and art, that it took 6,000 years for humanity to catch up to where they used to be.
17:47 Rasha Pecoraro? That might sound like a lot to accept, but as soon as Ignatius publishes his book, it instantly becomes a bestseller. People love his theories about Atlantis and how it shaped the modern world, and they totally believe it, too.
18:04 Yvette Gentile? Well, some people do. Others think Ignatius' ideas are a little too far out there. I mean, Ignatius isn't a scientist. He makes a lot of big claims based on very little evidence, and never does the work to test his hypotheses. Take that argument we discussed earlier about how all of the world's religions are based on real Atlantean people, who were later worshipped as gods. That's a huge leap for Ignatius to make based on the fact that two words sound kind of similar. And remember how we said he studied different languages, cultures, and religions, looking for similarities between them?
18:48 Yvette Gentile? Well, he only did that for a few months before publishing his book. I mean, I'm no anthropologist, but that doesn't seem like enough time to really understand every single culture, language, and art style in the world, let alone analyze them in depth. He also makes some very outdated arguments about race, which I just gotta say, we will not be repeating. Instead, let's just say, his theories have not stood the test of time.
19:18 Rasha Pecoraro? But even if you don't buy everything Ignatius says, there's one core argument that people cannot let go of: that Atlantis may have actually once been a real place.
19:31 Rasha Pecoraro? And even if Ignatius's arguments are a little out there, there's one mystic named Edgar Cayce, who still builds on his theories in the 1930s and 40s.
19:44 Rasha Pecoraro? Now Edgar believes he can use psychic abilities to heal sick people by dreaming, literally dreaming. People with undiagnosed medical problems come to him. They tell him a little bit about their symptoms and what they've tried so far. Then Edgar says he'll sleep on it. He takes a quick power nap. And when he wakes up, he says he can diagnose exactly what is wrong with his patients. Usually, he also knows how to treat it, too. A lot of the time Edgar says that people are feeling sick because of something that happened to them in a past life. He believes in reincarnation
20:27 Rasha Pecoraro? and thinks that people can carry guilt and shame and all other kinds of feelings from one existence to the next.
20:36 Rasha Pecoraro? And Edgar is all too happy to teach people how to forgive themselves and move past negative emotions.
20:43 Yvette Gentile? Well, one day in 1938, a young man goes to Edgar asking for help. Just like usual, he hears about this man's illness and then lies down. He waits for a psychic dream to reveal what's wrong with him. And sure enough, when Edgar is asleep, he has a vision that tells him why this man is sick. Apparently, in his past life, the guy was a scientist and he was very arrogant. He thought that he was smarter than everyone else and he acted like a bully. And the guilt from his past life behaviors is what was making him sick. But during that dream, Edgar allegedly gets a glimpse at the science this man was doing.
21:27 Yvette Gentile? And he wasn't just some chemist experimenting with beakers of liquid. No, he was an electrician. And he was building incredible machines in an era where, as far as anyone knows, electricity hadn't been discovered yet.
21:46 Yvette Gentile? That's when Edgar realizes this man was an electrical engineer in Atlantis. Most importantly, he sees a lot of information about what Atlantis used to be before its destruction.
22:04 Rasha Pecoraro? According to Edgar, Atlantis was near an island in the Bahamas called Bimini. And the people of Atlantis had very advanced technology. And I don't mean advanced for 9,000 BCE. He thinks Atlantis has a better understanding of science than even the people of his own time. Edgar says the Atlanteans used chips made of silicon, which is a jaw-dropping prediction. Because we use silicon computer chips today. But that technology did not exist in 1938 at the time of Edgar's vision. He also says that Atlantis has a totally green, sustainable energy source.
22:47 Rasha Pecoraro? One that can draw electricity from giant crystals. These crystals can also vibrate at just the right frequency so their sound waves cure diseases. Edgar also says that the Atlanteans invented atomic energy, airplanes, televisions, and laser-like crystals. Which, I mean, that's pretty cool, because he's making these claims before anyone in the modern era had invented most of these things. Like Edgar shouldn't even know about technology like TV or atomic energy. But here he is, saying that the people of Atlantis mastered these technologies.
23:27 Yvette Gentile? Now, you've got to think, if this vision is true, there's got to be a ton of people trying to get their hands on that Atlantean technology. I mean, who wouldn't want clean crystal energy and non-invasive cures for disease? Well, Edgar has good news for them. He keeps having more dreams and learning more about Atlantis. Eventually, he says that someday soon, people will find ruins of Atlantis and recover some of that ancient technology for themselves. He even predicts exactly when and where this discovery will take place. In either 1968 or 1969, he says Atlantis will be discovered off the shores of Bimini.
24:15 Yvette Gentile? And Edgar writes this prophecy down along with a few others. He includes them in a series of books that he writes over the course of his lifetime.
24:24 Rasha Pecoraro? So now let's cut to 30 years later. In 1968, a couple of scuba divers are exploring the ocean floor just off the shores of Bimini. They're actually professional archaeologists. And they're out there looking for ruins amongst the many shipwrecks that happened off of Bimini's shores. But they aren't necessarily searching for the ruins of Atlantis. At least not until they see something that looks like an underwater cobblestone road. It has rectangular blocks of stone laid out in a precise straight line, and it appears to be manmade. I mean, hello, what are the odds?
25:04 Rasha Pecoraro? In the exact year and the exact place that Edgar envisioned, here's this bizarre underwater yellow brick road of sorts.
25:13 Yvette Gentile? Okay, well, Rasha, it's not really yellow. It's not about the Wizard of Oz.
25:17 Rasha Pecoraro? Okay, fine.
25:20 Yvette Gentile? But anyhow, right away, the discovery makes headlines all over the world. It's dubbed Bimini Road. And everyone's speculating that this must have been an Atlantean thoroughway that sank with the rest of the city. Even weirder, Bimini Road is in the Bermuda Triangle. And I know we touched on this idea briefly in another episode. And I've just got to say, we've read the comments. And we know that some of you feel like the Bermuda Triangle is a complete myth. But some people do think Atlantis sank in the Bermuda Triangle. And that's why there's so many eerie disappearances and strange events that still happen there.
26:05 Yvette Gentile? It makes sense. If you've got ancient advanced technology sitting at the bottom of the sea, weird things can happen.
26:15 Rasha Pecoraro? But the question for now is, what can these ruins actually teach us about humanity's past?
26:23 Rasha Pecoraro? So a ton of scientists flocked to the Bahamas in the late 1960s and 70s to try and find out just this. Unfortunately, they don't get the answers many were hoping for. They discover the road is made of a very fragile kind of rock. Apparently, when waves hit it in just the right way, it breaks apart into pieces that actually look like cobblestones. In the end, their conclusion is that Bimini Road isn't man-made after all. It's a naturally occurring underwater rock formation. And the rocks are only about 2,000 to 4,000 years old, not 9,000 years old like Atlantis.
27:05 Rasha Pecoraro? So this Bimini Road discovery is a bust, to put it mildly. But people don't give up on their search for Atlantis that easily.
27:16 Yvette Gentile? We're going to cover some of the most credible discoveries in a little bit. But first, I want to talk about one of my favorite theories because of just how out there it is. The gist is that all of our records about Atlantis' real location is wrong. Plato had it wrong, Ignatius Donnelly had it wrong, and Edgar Cayce had it wrong. That's why we haven't been able to find any ruins or any evidence that the lost kingdom existed, because we haven't been searching in the right place. As for where it actually is, some say Atlantis is in, and get this, y'all, Antarctica.
28:00 Rasha Pecoraro? Okay, now, the first time I heard this theory, I thought, this makes absolutely zero sense. Atlantis was supposed to be an ancient paradise, not a frozen uninhabitable land. But the people who believe in this idea point to one huge piece of evidence that seems to support it. It's called the Pirrie Rees map. Ashley covered the map at length in her Ancient Aliens episode, which, of course, I highly recommend you check out. It's a wild story. But here's the quick and dirty summary. In the year 1513, the map was made by a Turkish cartographer named Pirrie Rees.
28:41 Rasha Pecoraro? It showed the entire known world, including Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
28:50 Rasha Pecoraro? Keep in mind, this was barely 20 years after Christopher Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue. And again, there's a lot to be said about Christopher Columbus, but we're just using this as a reference point because it's something we're all pretty familiar with. Back then, map-making technology just wasn't that advanced, and most charts from the time were very inaccurate.
29:14 Yvette Gentile? But the Piri Rees map is an exception. Its depiction of the eastern Indies and North America's coastline are pretty decent. It seems impossible that someone could nail it like Piri Rees did. But he claims he's just really good at research. He consulted Columbus's personal papers, and he also looked at ancient maps when he was drawing the geography around Europe, Asia, and Africa. And some say Antarctica. Keep in mind, Antarctica wasn't actually discovered by Europeans until 1820. That's nearly 300 years after Piri Rees's death.
29:55 Yvette Gentile? But somehow, he knew to include a whole undiscovered continent at the South Pole. And when he adds Antarctica to the map, he depicts it as having no ice, as though it's not a frozen land at all, but an ordinary continent where people can live, farm, and not freeze to death. And a lot of people assume he drew it that way because he saw like that in the old records. Like maybe centuries or millennia before Piri Rees's life, ancient people knew about Antarctica, and for them, it was a warm, livable paradise, just like Atlantis was.
30:38 Rasha Pecoraro? Okay, there's a few reasons why this theory is kind of a stretch, in my opinion. First of all, Piri Rees never actually said that Antarctica was Atlantis. That was all speculation from people who saw his map, noticed the lack of ice, and threw out some wild possibilities. And outside of the Piri Rees map, there's no evidence linking Atlantis to Antarctica. So yeah, it's a cool story, but not a very credible one. But there is a much more believable story from the year 2018. Because that year, a British archaeology firm drops a bombshell.
31:20 Rasha Pecoraro? They release a statement saying they have, quote, "concrete proof that Atlantis existed."
31:35 Yvette Gentile? In 2018, an archaeology firm called Merlin Burrows is studying the wetlands in a national park in southern Spain. Now, their specialty is in uncovering ancient artifacts. Among other things, they found the tomb of a famous ancient ruler who died in 410 C.E. and a sunken ship from the 1700s. Their website literally promises they can, and this is a quote, "find anything that has been lost, forgotten, or hidden with pinpoint accuracy." And the reason they're in Spain is because they just found a huge clue in an ancient text.
32:17 Yvette Gentile? Unfortunately, they don't publicly say what that ancient text is, but apparently, there was some language in there that had them thinking Atlantis must be somewhere in southern Spain. They feel so good about this theory that they hire a team of filmmakers to record their expedition. And the hope is that if they do find Atlantis, they'll have a record of the historic moment.
32:46 Rasha Pecoraro? As part of their research, the employees get satellite photographs of the wetlands. They expect, of course, to see wooded areas, swamps, maybe a few sandy beaches. But the pictures have something completely unexpected.
33:02 Rasha Pecoraro? A bunch of perfectly circular lakes. They're not very big, but there are a ton of them. And their layout just does not look natural. They're so symmetrical and striking, they almost look like crop circles. And the team's first thought is that maybe there used to be circular towers standing there, specifically Atlantean towers. The thinking is, if those towers collapsed but the foundations were still underground, they could fill with water and turn into tiny round lakes. So to them, this feels like pretty solid evidence that Atlantis used to be in Spain.
33:44 Yvette Gentile? It's probably no surprise that when Merlin Burrows releases this information, it's a huge news story. Some people read the coverage and think, okay, great, we have finally found Atlantis. But of course, other people are more skeptical. Especially when some online sleuths pull up 20-year-old satellite photos of the exact same area, and the pools aren't there. In fact, they don't show up until 2004 and 2005. And with a bit of digging, people realize that a team of scientists were already out there researching species of plankton at the time.
34:25 Yvette Gentile? And they built the pools in the marsh for the plankton to live in. So basically, Merlin Burrows was correct when they said these structures were man-made. But they weren't leftovers from an ancient civilization. They had nothing to do with Atlantis, unfortunately.
34:46 Rasha Pecoraro? So I know, this story feels incredibly discouraging. Time after time, people say they've found the lost kingdom of Atlantis. And time after time, it's debunked. But there's still some evidence out there that hasn't been totally written off. So in my opinion, one of the best comes from 2009, and it's also in Spain. That's when a group of American researchers were exploring some marshlands on the Spanish coast, close to a city called Cadiz. Interestingly enough, this wasn't too far from the state park where Merlin Burrows later found the round lakes. These marshlands are about 60 miles inland, pretty far from the shore.
35:31 Rasha Pecoraro? And the satellites showed that there was something buried under the swamps. It looked like an old, ancient city that had been wiped out in a tsunami. Here's the thing, though. The researchers didn't think these buried ruins were from Atlantis. Their theory was that Atlantis was somewhere else entirely. But after its destruction, the survivors might have fled to southern Spain and built a new settlement just for that city to be lost in a tsunami. I mean, if that theory is correct, it's incredibly sad. Anyway, the researchers speculate that if they kept searching around the same area,
36:15 Rasha Pecoraro? eventually, they would find the ruins of an older, grander city: the actual Atlantis. And in 2023, that prediction comes true.
36:29 Yvette Gentile? This time, a different team of researchers were working on an unrelated project just off the coast of Cadiz. Their study involved several long scuba diving excursions. At one point, they were wrapping up one of these trips when their sonar equipment went off. It said there was something beneath them. Unfortunately, they didn't know what their gear was picking up, because it was too deep for them to eyeball. And since their oxygen tanks were getting low, it wasn't safe to stick around and investigate. So instead, the researchers decided to come back for a closer look later on. I'm not sure how long it takes, but when they do return, they go to the exact same
37:14 Yvette Gentile? area where their sonar went off. And that's when they find underwater walls.
37:21 Yvette Gentile? They're made of stones that have been cut out into perfect squares and triangles, and each corner of the square is exactly 90 degrees. In other words, these things, again, look man-made, not natural. And these walls are huge, some are 16 feet tall and about a quarter of a mile long. It's actually so much that it takes the researchers years to map everything out, and eventually they decide they may have found the lost kingdom of Atlantis.
37:57 Rasha Pecoraro? You'll remember how earlier we said Plato described Atlantis as being laid out in a series of circles, sort of like a dartboard. Well, the ruins near Cadiz have that exact same pattern. They're a ring within a ring within a ring, and this submerged city is very close to a narrow strait. Which reminds me of how Plato said you have to go through a strait to get to Atlantis. The problem is, though, these stones could still be natural. Yes, it's rare for stones to erode into perfect right angles in nature, but it does happen occasionally.
38:39 Rasha Pecoraro? And if that's the case, they probably have nothing to do with Atlantis.
38:45 Yvette Gentile? There's another possibility that's sort of a middle ground, though, one that can explain why we haven't been able to fully confirm the ancient city yet. Because maybe Atlantis itself wasn't real, but it was inspired by true events. Some scholars think that Plato based the fictional kingdom of Atlantis on a real island that was nearly destroyed in another horrible disaster: Santorini.
39:13 Yvette Gentile? It's an island off the shores of Greece, and you might be thinking, "Oh yeah, I've heard of or even been to Santorini," because it is a popular vacation destination. It wasn't destroyed like Atlantis. Well, you're right. But Santorini today is very different from how it was around 1600 BCE. Back then, it was home to a very advanced civilization called the Minoans. But I want to be clear. When I say they were advanced, I don't mean they had magical crystal batteries or that they could cure disease with vibrations.
39:55 Yvette Gentile? But they were one of the first civilizations in the Mediterranean region.
40:01 Rasha Pecoraro? Which means the Minoans were one of the first human cultures ever. They also built huge cities and made beautiful art like pottery and massive frescoes. And in the year 1600 BCE, a huge volcano in the center of Santorini erupted. And right afterward, the Minoan civilization just disappeared. As in, they stopped building cities and making art. They just vanished from the archaeological record. And when you look at their trading partners and allies, there's no mention of them doing any business or making treaties after that year. It's like this whole civilization
40:45 Rasha Pecoraro? just disappears in an instant.
40:48 Yvette Gentile? Now, the blast didn't actually destroy the island like what happened to Atlantis, but the eruption was so huge, it completely changed the island's geology. It used to be a small island surrounded by a ring of land, just like how Plato described Atlantis. But now, half of the ring is gone and the center of the island is a tiny little dot. Everything else got blown to pieces. Geologists are still studying all of the sediment and rubble today to try and understand the extent of this blast. But there's one thing that they are absolutely sure about. It was massive. And a thousand or so years after the disaster,
41:32 Yvette Gentile? Plato may have heard about a volcano destroying an advanced civilization.
41:38 Yvette Gentile? Then he might have used the Minoan people as an inspiration for his fictional Atlantis.
41:44 Rasha Pecoraro? Some historians also think that Plato was using the story of Atlantis to basically comment on current events and politics from his time. It's about how life was good when the Atlanteans had a fair society. Once they became greedy, corrupt, and arrogant, their world came crumbling down, literally. In other words, the story of Atlantis may have been Plato's way of telling the ancient Greeks of the time, "You better be kind, or this is what will happen to you."
42:19 Yvette Gentile? I totally agree with you, Russia, but I also do think there's more to the story of Atlantis than that, because it's also a legend about a lost paradise. And if human beings used to be capable of these incredible feats, like building these flying machines, lasers, and sustainable energy, that means we are capable of even more with technology and resources we have at our disposal today. In a way, the story of Atlantis is about hope, not just in the hopes of finding it one day, but in the hopes that we can learn from the mistakes of the past, legend or otherwise,
43:03 Yvette Gentile? and build a world that is better for all of us.
43:17 Rasha Pecoraro? This is So Supernatural, an AudioChuck original, produced by Crime House. You can connect with us on Instagram at @SoSupernaturalPod and visit our website at sosupernaturalpodcast.com. Join Yvette and me next Friday for an all-new episode.
43:37 Rasha Pecoraro? So what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?
43:43 Speaker 03 I've been having a hard time trying to explain what Midnight Burger is. How about I let them give it a shot?
43:49 Speaker 04 Your podcast is amazing.
43:50 Speaker 05 It's such an amazing show altogether.
43:52 Speaker 06 You guys have actively ruined all of their audio dramas for me.
43:56 Speaker 07 You can't get people to understand the humaning that happens in this damn show.
44:00 Speaker 05 Keep doing what you're doing, because it's awesome. You might not think it, but you are far more
44:04 Speaker 03 More important than you realize. Thank you. At the nexus of all things, there is a diner. Look for Midnight Burger on your favorite podcasting app, or just go to weopenat6.com.
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