Archaeologist confidently points out the "ideal" site of the lost ancient Atlantis

People have been searching for Atlantis for thousands of years. Now one modern US archaeologist believes the long-lost city could be lurking off the coast of southern Spain. Michael Donnellan has been exploring around Cadiz, a city in Andalusia, an area he says "fits perfectly" with Plato's description of Atlantis, which was swallowed by the sea more than 11,600 years ago.

"On the shore of the sea, which extended through the center of the whole island, there was a plain, which was said to be the most beautiful of all plains and very fertile; and, besides, next to the plain, opposite its center... "there rose a mountain, which was low on all sides," wrote Plato in his works.

"Cadiz is located on an extremely flat plain, just as Plato said," Donnellan explained to the Daily Mail: "It sits on the continental shelf and then meets the Atlantic Ocean, just like the description of Atlantis."

Plato first introduced Atlantis in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written around 360 BC, the Daily Mail recalls. The ancient philosopher described it as a technologically advanced society that existed 9,000 years before his time, that is, more than 11,000 years ago.

One of the key details Plato noted was the abundance of wildlife, including elephants, horses and bulls, which Donnellan says fits in well with the archaeological record of southern Spain.

"The horses that lived in this area are considered to be the oldest breed in the world," the enthusiast notes. "The same goes for the bull, the fighting bull from Andalusia, whose history goes back thousands of years."

Donnellan added that there was also a prehistoric trade in ivory in this part of Spain, noting that three species of elephant lived there, including Asian elephants, suggesting that there was international trade between the region and Asia.

An Atlantis seeker recently announced the discovery of "long linear structures" carved into the ocean floor off the coast of Cadiz that he believes were once home to a lost Atlantean civilization. The structures formed a series of "massive concentric circular walls," each more than 20 feet high and arranged in a specific pattern. The outermost wall had suffered the most damage, as if it had been hit by a massive tsunami from the sea. The second and third walls, he said, were "completely displaced," and scans showed them to be split in two.

Between the walls ran intricately carved canals, and in the centre were rectangular ruins which Donnellan said echoed Plato's description of the Temple of Poseidon, which he believed was the capital of Atlantis.

Now Donnellan has shared more detailed information about Cadiz, which he believes is consistent with Plato's writings.

Plato described Atlantis as a vast fertile plain "3,000 stades long and 2,000 stades wide, about 340 by 230 miles, surrounded by high mountains."

Donnellan pointed out a series of massive rock-cut caves rising above the coastline more than 600 feet above sea level.

"You see a rock outcrop in the interior of the island and three perfectly aligned caves, and 65 feet below that are two more perfectly aligned caves," he said, adding that another cave is another 65 feet below those caves.

However, he said there were "thousands and thousands of these artificial caves" which he believed may have been built by survivors of an ancient cataclysm.

"People talk about cavemen as the first humans," Donnellan said. "But I think the cavemen survived. After some kind of collision, everyone living along the coast disappeared. Those who survived fled to the mountains."

Cadiz is also home to the world's oldest horse breed, the Caspian horse, which originated in Iran and whose remains date back to 3400 BC, the Daily Mail reports.

Although Plato does not mention a specific breed of horse, he wrote that the ancient Atlantean civilization "had a large number of chariots and horses, and a large cavalry."

The local Vaca Marismeña bull is one of the oldest cattle breeds in Spain, genetically linked to ancient Iberian cattle breeding dating back to around 7000-6000 BC, the Daily Mail continues.

"He talks about another animal that was helpful in the day-to-day running of this empire, the elephant," Donnellan said. "There was already an elephant colony in the region, research has confirmed that, and we know that there was a prehistoric trade in ivory throughout this part of Andalusia."

Some researchers argue that the presence of Asian elephant remains or ivory in southern Spain is evidence of prehistoric trade routes between Europe and Asia, supporting speculation about early international trade.

Plato wrote that the entire island was wiped off the face of the earth by a powerful earthquake and flood and disappeared under the waves.

“Plato put it very well,” Donnellan says.

The archaeologist admits that historians don't know what caused these horrific events, but points to the idea of the Younger Dryas, a controversial period thought to have ended around 11,600 BCE. While it hasn't gained widespread acceptance among mainstream scholars, some fringe researchers have linked it to a catastrophic event that may have destroyed Atlantis.