(Source) According to one computer expert, we have been looking for the ruins of Atlantis in all the wrong places. As it turns out, they might be found on dry land, in Morocco.
The fabled city has been on the tips of so many pens and tongues that over the years it’s become synonym with a goose chase of insular proportions. While critics argue that Plato’s account is merely an allegoric tale of a fictional city, there are many more who believe Atlantis was a real place and perhaps a point of origin for the rest of the ancient civilizations.
One of them was a German computer expert named Michael Hubner. In 2008, Hubner combed Plato’s Timaeus and Critias for any clues about Atlantis. He gathered 51 hints, turned them into variables and added them into a computer program, hoping this might help him uncover the location of Atlantis, if there ever was one.
According to Plato, Atlantis was devastated by a tsunami after it incurred the wrath of the gods.
The clues specified that Atlantis consisted of concentric rings encompassing its center, was located near the sea and at a distance of around 3,100 miles from Athens. This narrows it down to areas of Europe, Africa or the Middle East.
Another set of clues mentioned it wasn’t found in Asia or Europe but was located west of Egypt and close to a massive mountain range. It was also said to be found outside the Pillars of Herakles, which many believe to be the Gibraltar Strait.
All the clues pointed towards a region in modern day Morocco, near the Atlas Mountains and about 100 miles south of Marrakesh. Hubner’s theory challenges the notion that the ruins of Atlantis lie as its name suggests, on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
Like we said, the location was provided by a computer program which gracefully spat out the GPS coordinates for the location that best matched the set of clues.
When Hubner traveled to that particular location, he found a desert basin seven miles away from the sea. In it center there was a small mound, matching Plato’s description of the ancient city. The central mound was surrounded by concentric riverbeds, again matching the description.
The area was and still is seismically active, meaning earthquakes could occur and thus create devastating tsunamis.Morocco was never considered as a candidate for the ruins of Atlantis and perhaps an archaeological survey focused on searching for them might uncover unexpected results.
Earlier this year, a 2,600 year old shipwreck yielded its cargo that included 39 ingots of orichalcum, a rare and precious metal that was said to cover the walls of Atlantis. Does this discovery lend credence to the legend?
Perhaps time will tell.