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Atlantis: Everything you need to know about the lost civilization

Zachary Quinto
Zachary Quinto stars in “In Search Of” in hopes of finding Atlantis. Pic credit: History

In Search Of on the History Channel brings the mystery of Atlantis back to the forefront.

Zachary Quinto, best known for his role as Spock in Star Trek, hosts and produces this series, and the season finale sees him personally travel around the world to do research in hope of locating the lost city of Atlantis.

On each episode of In Search Of, Quinto explores unexplained phenomena, including aliens, UFOs, mysterious creators and anything else.

The show doesn’t rely on the supernatural alone, though. Scholars and eyewitnesses also lend their stories in hopes of helping Zachary on his journey.

Quinto begins his hunt for Atlantis by looking at Plato’s ancient works for clues, starting in Greece.

Here, he finds some similarities between what Atlantis is believed to have been and the Minoan civilization.

In the second episode, he finds evidence matching what Plato had written about in caves near Sardinia. And while Zachary Quinto is on a search to find Atlantis, he isn’t starting from scratch. Here’s what we already know.

Location

There’s a reason why Quinto starts his journey on In Search Of in southern Europe.

In his works, Plato provides a general location for where Atlantis is. He explains that it is in the Atlantic Ocean and points to an island in front of the straits he called the Pillars of Heracles.

That strait is now referred to as the Straits of Gibraltar, the water between Spain and Africa.

Atlantis is named after a Demigod

The name Atlantis does have its ties to the Atlantic Ocean, and Plato claims that Poseidon’s five pairs of male twins were granted portions of land.

It was his second-oldest sets of twins that were given both Spain and Atlantis, with Atlas -one of the twins – being responsible for Atlantis.

Plato’s story isn’t complete

The mystery of Atlantis is prominent in books written by Plato, but the text isn’t complete. It’s known that Plato wrote two books about Atlantis, but only one book is complete. Timaeus, the first book, is complete, but researchers do not have the full version of Critias.

Atlantis was an empire

Plato did reveal that Atlantis was an empire. In his works, he identifies Atlantis as an island, but he also points out that it was an empire. The island ruled both the city of Atlantis and the surrounding waters.

Storytelling or real?

While Plato claims that the story of Atlantis is indeed true, there’s no concrete evidence to show it actually existed.

Perhaps, Atlantis is an attempt to keep the imagination going, sharing a powerful story about an underwater empire. However, maybe Zachary Quinto can provide evidence to prove otherwise on In Search Of.

In Search Of airs Thursdays at 10/9c on History.

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