- A team of American ocean researchers said yesterday that
they were convinced they had found evidence of the lost kingdom of Atlantis
off the coast of Cyprus.
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- The team used the latest sonar technology to create images
of the sea bed a mile below the surface of the Mediterranean.
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- The expedition, led by Robert Sarmast, spent six days
at sea surveying the area. "I am absolutely convinced I have found
Atlantis," Mr Sarmast said, speaking on the deck of his research ship
on his return to Limassol.
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- "The sonar images showed what appeared to be two
straight walls each about a mile long at either end of a flat-topped hill
where the city's temples would have been situated."
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- In addition to these apparently man-made structures the
images also showed evidence of two streams that Mr Sarmast said had flowed
from springs on the summit. These fed into a trench or canal bed, which
seemed to run concentrically around the hill.
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- According to Mr Sarmast the latest evidence matches exactly
the detailed description of Atlantis given by Plato.
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- "There are about 60 specific points that match Plato's
account," he said. "How can you explain away a bunch of coincidences
like this?"
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- Mr Sarmast, 38, from Los Angeles, admits he has no formal
academic qualifications to substantiate his claims, which he acknowledges
to be controversial. But having spent 10 years studying accounts of the
lost city he is in no doubt about the importance of his find.
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- He says his next step will be to make a three-dimensional
computer image from the sonar data before returning to the site for further
research.
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- But Mr Sarmast is not alone in claiming to have found
the site of the ancient city. Last June a German researcher produced evidence
to support his assertion that Atlantis was once a coastal area of Spain,
not far from Cadiz. Other recent theories have located the city near Cuba
and off the coast of Devon.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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