Atlantis and the Lost Continent Legend: Myth or Reality?

Introduction: The Enduring Legend of the Lost Continent

Among the catalog of earthly wonders, only a few exist in that realm of unsubstantiated rumor upheld by the broadest variety of sources. The Lost Continent is, truly, one of these wonders — a place made of both earth and sea, said to have been created by Triton, Poseidon, Atlas, or whatever ancient god fashioned it as a point of union between the earthly and the divine, between the surface and the depths beneath. What is striking is that within Western culture, Plato is among the first known sources to mention Atlantis in a theoretical discourse — a completely fictional account used to explain the nature of the physical universe. Yet the concept of the Lost Continent, whatever name is assigned to it, is one that has been shared across scientific exploration, philosophical discourse, mythology and legend, religious and spiritual writing, and science fiction. It remains embedded in popular culture, as evidenced by the semi-annual announcements that some explorer has discovered what may be evidence of a city lost beneath the ocean's surface.

While the legend of a Lost Continent — brought low by natural, divine, alien, or other forces — is certainly part of our general popular culture, facts about such a place and evidence of its existence are non-existent. However, this does not necessarily mean that science has proven there was never a Lost Continent. Scientific exploration can generally only explain what we know about something, what we can see, feel, or hear. Science is necessarily silent about things that have not yet been found or simply do not exist. One cannot prove that something no one has found is absent — but the absence of discovery is not itself evidence that something does not exist. Rather, that is the realm of faith and of legend, of believing something to be true even when there is no rational basis for doing so. Atlantis, Rutas, Lemuria — whatever the name — truly exists in the imagination of the world. But did any of them ever truly exist?

One of the most persistent and pervasive legends in human history involves the concept of the Lost Continent. In these legends — and the specific name is essentially unimportant — an island, part of a peninsula, or some other landmass of varying size, depending on the account, once existed above the surface of the ocean. The legends typically hold that in ancient history, a civilization of people lived on that landmass or "continent." These peoples are generally believed to predate written history and, in many accounts, were an "advanced" civilization producing works of art, music, philosophy, and science far beyond their time. At some point a catastrophic natural disaster struck the continent, reducing it to rubble, and either gradually or suddenly it fell beneath the surface of the water, never to be seen or heard from again. The origins of these tales can be found in both Western and Eastern traditions.