Introduction:
Plato (Greek philosopher 380BC) described a large continent with a wonderful civilisation which he said existed at one time at "a distant point in the Atlantic Ocean" opposite the Strait of Gibraltar. He called the continent Atlantis and said it sank into the sea in the space of a single day and night. Thus arose the legend of the lost continent of Atlantis.

The Problem:
Modern geology says a continent cannot sink beneath the sea in the space of a single day and no such continent has sunk into the Atlantic Ocean.

Background:
Plato’s description exactly fits South America because he describes a level rectangular-shaped plain which he said lay in the centre of the continent, next to the sea and midway along the longest side of the continent..

He also described the capital city of Atlantis which was built on a small volcanic island and also called Atlantis. The city lay on the level rectangular plain, five miles from the sea and according to Plato the whole region was high above the level of the Ocean sea, rising sheer out of the ocean sea to a great height on that side of the continent. Thus we have both a lost city of Atlantis as well as a lost continent of Atlantis.

Model of the whole island with the rectangular level plain arrowed. The translation from Plato by Desmond Lee tells us "in the centre of the island near the sea was a plain which was enclosed by mountains, and the region as a whole was high above the level of the sea. The plain was uniformly flat, rectangular in shape and lay midway along the longest side of the continent." CLICK on picture for a bigger view ?

The Solution:
It was not the continent of Atlantis which sank into the sea, but the island capital of the same name, built around a volcanic island which sank into the inland sea of Lake Poopo which exists on the edge of the rectangular plain presently called the Bolivian Altiplano. This plain is in the centre of the continent exactly as Plato described it. Modern satellite mapping shows it to be of rectangular configuration, perfectly level, enclosed on all sides by mountains and these mountains contained the metals gold, silver, copper, tin and the mysterious “Orichalcum" (an alloy of gold and copper which occurs only in the Andes) which Plato said were used to plate the walls of the circular city. The words “Atl" and “Antis" are themselves of native America origins meaning “water" and “copper" respectively and the plain is subject to earthquakes and floods such as Plato said sank the city in a single day and night of rainfall. Sinking into the Sea People sometimes say; "How can Atlantis be in the Andes when it is supposed to have sank into the sea?" We must remember that Atlantis according to Plato was on a level plain "high above the level of the sea and surrounded by mountains". In fact the entire plain was submerged beneath the sea ie it became a giant inland sea at exactly the date Plato gave, circa 9,000BC although it is also possible that Plato's 9,000 "years" prior to Solon for the submergence of Atlantis should actually be 9,000 "months" since he talks of a date for the end of Atlantis concurrent with the founding of Greece and the invasion of Greece and Egypt by the Atlanteans - and if we substitute months for years, then these events could correspond to the founding of Athens by Theseus in 1400BC and the invasions of Greece and Egypt by the "Sea Peoples" around 1200BC.

Read about it in Atlantis: the Andes solution by J. M. Allen