Finding Atlantis (2011)

Could the fabled lost city of Atlantis have been located? Using satellite photography, ground-penetrating radar and underwater technology, The film, Finding Atlantis, was screened by the National Geographic Channel in the US and fronted by Professor Richard Freund, from Hartford University in Connecticut. Professor Freund explained how he led a pursuit to find the lost civilisation, believed by many to be an ancient Greek myth, by using deep-ground radar, digital mapping and satellite imagery. He contends that Atlantis, described by Plato in 360BC, in Spain's Donaña National Park, north of Cadiz, and was wiped out by a giant tsunami. Plato wrote it had been destroyed by a natural disaster in 9,000BC. Experts are now surveying marshlands in Spain to look for proof of the ancient city.

The theory that Atlantis is buried in the Spanish wetlands is the latest in a long line of suggested locations. In 2004, US ocean researchers said they were convinced they had found evidence of Atlantis off the coast of Cyprus. Others include various Mediterranean islands, Central America and even Antarctica. Professor Freund said that some of Atlantis's inhabitants had fled a tsunami to establish similar "memorial cities" which he had identified in central Spain.

His film company, Associated Producers of Canada, added: "Besides identifying the location of the city, they discovered a stele that may have stood at the entrance to the ancient civilisation. It records the long lost symbol of Atlantis." The film's claims however were dismissed as having no reliable basis in scientific fact and of misinterpreting partial results by an investigation by a team of distinguished Spanish scientists. Since 2005 they have been working on the site at a huge national park and bird sanctuary near Cadiz. If the team can match geological formations to Plato's descriptions and date artifacts back to the time of Atlantis, we may be closer to solving one of the world's greatest mysteries.