Original subtitles

On this episode of "Expedition Files"...

For centuries, sailors feared a monster called the Kraken,

which dragged ships to their doom.

But what if their stories were rooted in something real?

Now, a creature from the depths has been found alive that might

expose the truth behind the legendary Kraken.

Then, Georgia's largest lake is also its deadliest.

With decades of mysterious drownings fueling whispers of

a supernatural curse.

But insights into the lake's dark past may finally shed

light on these fatal tragedies.

And Atlantis, the ancient metropolis said to be sunk

below the waves by the wrath of angry gods.

Is there any historic basis behind the iconic myth?

After a series of potential discoveries,

we reveal all.

In the corridors of time

are mysteries that defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling through history itself

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates.

And these...

are my "Expedition Files."

I spend more time than most on or under the water,

from zero visibility flooded pyramids in Sudan

to the swirling seas of the Mediterranean.

Honestly, I owe most of my career to Dramamine.

But the thing is, if you're in the business of adventure,

there's nowhere more exciting or mysterious than

the watery depths.

And tonight, we look at three files that prove just that,

plunging deep to find secrets hidden below the surface.

We begin where else but out on the wild ocean,

the North Sea to be exact.

And you're about to experience one of the world's

most legendary nautical encounters.

It's the 12th century, and this crew of Norse sailors

is among the hardiest on the high seas.

But they're about to be humbled.

Moments from now, according to an extraordinary written

account, this vessel will be ambushed from the depths

by a terrifying and gigantic monster.

The beast will earn a name that will echo

through the centuries,

The Kraken.

Like Nessie and Bigfoot, it will take its place among

the pantheon of legendary creatures.

But 800 years from now, shocking scientific evidence

will suggest this mythic sea monster might be

more than just a fantasy.

[ominous music playing]

[Josh] As the tale goes, the first sign of something

out of the ordinary is when the Norse crew notices fish

appearing in abundance,

thousands of them thrashing near the surface.

Then comes the smell, something foul, something evil.

In the salt air, there's a sulfurous stench that

burns the nostrils.

At that moment, it's said that a crewman spots a small island

dead ahead, but one not on their charts,

like a slick black rock in the ocean.

But it's no rock.

It's alive.

[sinister tones playing]

The crew scrambles to evade the creature, but it attacks.

A colossal mass of arriving tentacles grabs the ship,

snatching sailors from the deck.

Legend says that the horrified Norsemen fight back,

but it's futile against the onslaught.

At last, the Leviathan submerges,

forming a whirlpool in its wake as it drags the ship

and her crew into the watery abyss.

Supposedly, days after this sea monster encounter,

a lone survivor washes ashore.

Exhausted and waterlogged, the terrified sailor has not

only escaped the clutches of the beast, but he lives to

spread the tale far and wide.

The survivor shares his stunning story with

Norway's King Sverre.

The king's personal historian formally records

the tale around 1180.

It's the first known written account of a monster that will

one day be called The Kraken.

Over the next few centuries, many more reports emerge of

confrontations with a similar creature.

Swedish clergyman Olaus Magnus records multiple sea monster

encounters in his 1555 book,

"History of the Northern Peoples."

Magnus also illustrated a large creature with squid-like

tentacles and a serpent body that some say is the first

depiction of the Kraken.

Then, in 1734, Dano-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede

reported sighting a sea creature near Greenland,

describing it as, quote, "As thick as our ship and three

to four times as long, with a long, undulating body."

He also recounts how it dove back under the waves,

stirring up a massive whirlpool.

Later, in the 1750s it's Danish maritime historian

Erik Pontoppidan who finally names the creature the Kraken,

which means something twisted or crooked.

As more and more sailors share their extraordinary eyewitness

tales, a consensus emerges.

The creature resembles a squid, but one of

monstrous proportions.

But with no evidence of squids this large, the Kraken becomes

something every seafarer dreads and every scientist questions.

In 1870, tales of the Kraken inspire Jules Verne to write

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," which features an attack by

giant squids, which he refers to as devil fish.

The Kraken has become a thing of popular fantasy,

but now, potential evidence of a real life monster

is about to surface.

In 1873, the carcass of

a massive squid, much larger than any known species,

washes ashore in Newfoundland, Canada.

The extraordinary specimen is examined by

an amateur biologist, Reverend Moses Harvey,

who measures a seven-foot-long body with tentacles stretching

another 24 feet in length.

This specimen becomes the first formally identified

species of Architeuthis dux, also known as the giant squid.

Is this creature what seafarers through history

have been reporting?

Has the truth of the Kraken finally been revealed?

[Josh] In the late 1800s,

remains of an enormous giant squid wash ashore.

Could this be the real creature behind the legendary Kraken?

To learn more about this most mysterious species,

scientists need to find one alive, but it won't be easy.

In fact, it will take another 131 years.

Marine scientist Matthew Mulrennan,

who founded a company dedicated to finding and filming

the elusive colossal squid, explains how it was

finally discovered.

As a marine scientist, I had become really fascinated with

the colossal squid because it lives in the deep sea.

It's such a foreign environment for us.

It's so hard to do research there.

And for hundreds of years,

the myth of the Kraken was worldwide

and there was legends of these huge squids out in the ocean.

But then the myth became reality.

In 2004, off of Ogasawara Island in Japan,

researchers captured something truly amazing.

[Josh] Japanese zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera

and his team lowered a specially designed baited camera

nearly 3,000 feet beneath the surface

into a world rarely seen by human eyes.

And after centuries of rumor and fleeting evidence,

the giant squid finally revealed itself.

The camera records a massive giant squid surging out

of the darkness, attacking the bait with

speed and force.

One of its long tentacles lashes out and becomes

entangled, allowing the team to photograph the animal alive in

its natural habitat for the very first time.

The squid got caught on the lure at 3,000 feet depth.

And then as they were trying to pull it back to the surface,

it broke free, and one of its arms actually detached.

[Josh] The squid may have lost a tentacle in the encounter

with the camera, but with the ability to regrow

appendages, it likely survived.

The images confirmed what scientists had long suspected.

The giant squid is no passive deep-sea drifter,

but a powerful active predator, estimated to reach nearly

27 feet in length.

So this was truly an amazing moment for marine science.

For hundreds of years, we knew that giant squids were

out there in the ocean.

They had found bits and pieces in the stomach of sperm whales.

They'd heard tales from fishermen and other scientists

of them washing up in Newfoundland and in Norway.

But they'd never been able to see the giant squid and how it

behaves in the deep sea.

[Josh] Those groundbreaking photographs sparked a surge of

new exploration.

In 2012, researchers lowered a specialized deep sea

video camera to a depth of about half a mile,

and what they filmed was jaw-dropping.

For the first time, a giant squid was captured

alive on video, its long tentacles reaching

and probing through the darkness.

Using a stealthy low-light camera system, researchers made

a key discovery.

Giant squid are visually driven predators.

They got that first close-up of the giant squid, it kind of

changed a lot of perceptions.

This wasn't a terrifying sea monster.

This is a beautiful animal that undulates

in really interesting ways.

[Josh] And seven years later, there'll be another

stunning squid encounter.

In 2019, using the same system that they used off the coast of

Japan, they were able to again film a giant squid

on video in the Gulf of Mexico.

[Josh] This squid was measured to be around 10 feet long,

but was believed to be just a juvenile.

Most sightings appear to involve younger specimens,

raising a chilling possibility.

If these are the juveniles, far larger giants may still

lurk in the ocean's deepest reaches.

Scientists now theorize there could be squids out there in

the deepest oceans that are even larger than

these specimens, perhaps as huge as 70 feet.

There's also remarkable evidence of attacks on

sperm whales from monster squid.

In the southern hemisphere, whales have been found with

huge scars from the barbed, swiveling hooks

of the colossal squid's tentacles.

Thanks to modern scientific observations and discoveries,

many believe the legendary Kraken has finally

been unmasked.

It turns out it's no myth, but a very real giant squid.

[Matthew] The Kraken is a sailor-eating, ship-sinking sea monster.

For hundreds of years it all became a legend and myth.

Well, the Kraken is a myth, but the giant squid isn't.

The scientific reality is that we have live giant squids

out in the ocean.

And giant squids can reach extraordinary sizes.

It is possible these early mariners did see a giant squid

out there in the ocean.

And what they saw could have been the foundation for

the legend of the Kraken.

I could say with pretty good confidence that there are

far larger squids than we've been able to find

still out there in the ocean left to discover.

But whether the Kraken's size... Who knows?

If a monster squid can take on a 60 foot sperm whale,

is it that much of a stretch to imagine that it also might have

taken on something like, oh, I don't know, a 12th century

Norse trading ship?

Those sailors may well have encountered 40 foot tentacles

bubbling up from the deep.

Then, through countless re-tellings, and no doubt

a fair amount of mead, the story may have transformed

into a terrifying battle with an island-sized monster.

In the end, the fearsome Kraken may just be a case of

a tall squid twisted into an even taller tale.

It's November 14th, 1959, a beautiful morning on

Georgia's Lake Lanier, but, behind me,

a shocking crime scene.

A lone fisherman was casting for bass

but reeled in a nightmare.

The badly decomposed body of a woman in a blue dress,

her hands missing.

Even more shocking, dozens of people will later report seeing

the ghost of this woman, who'll become known as

the Lady of the Lake.

These sightings will fuel the belief that this place is

cursed, and the body count will seemingly back that up.

By the 2020s, an estimated 700 will have drowned here.

Now, a dark history long hidden deep below the surface reveals

the horrifying truth lurking in Lake Lanier.

The tragedy of the woman found in the lake begins

a year and a half earlier.

On April 16th, 1958, 22-year-old Delia May Parker Young

and her friend, 37-year-old Susie Roberts,

are dancing the night away at the local roadhouse.

The two young mothers are enjoying a rare night off.

Around 11 PM, they hop into Susie's Ford sedan,

heading home in the direction of Lake Lanier,

taking the Highway 53 bridge.

They are never seen again.

The next day, tire marks near the bridge lead some to believe

the women lost control and plunged into the water.

Police drag the lake and scour the shoreline,

but come up empty-handed.

It's as if the women simply vanished.

18 months later, our fisherman makes

his ghastly discovery.

Police suspect the dead woman is Delia May Parker Young,

who was wearing a blue dress the night she went missing.

But with her advanced state of decomposition,

the tattered shreds of sun-bleached fabric are not

enough to make a definitive ID.

And there's still no sign of Susie Roberts or the car.

The mystery of what happened to the two women hangs in the air

like the lake's heavy mist.

And that's when the ghost stories begin.

Drivers along State Route 53 tell of a spectral woman in

a blue dress missing her hands, pacing the bridge at night as

if searching for something. Or someone.

Boaters and fishermen whisper of strange encounters

near the bridge.

A shadowy figure in blue gliding along the shoreline,

then vanishing into the mist.

Swimmers report something even more chilling.

A sudden grip at their ankle, pulling them under.

These stories give birth to a legend.

The Lady of the Lake.

Forever haunting Lanier's waters.

Believers say she's the ghost of Delia May Parker Young.

But Delia's far from the lake's last victim.

On Christmas Day 1964, a station wagon packed with

two families swerves off the bridge and sinks.

Eleven people go under. Only four surface alive.

Two adults and five children are lost forever.

Over the years, hundreds more perish in the lake,

and its infamy grows.

Then, in 1990, there's a shocking discovery

that splashes the name Lake Lanier across

newspapers nationwide.

A construction crew working on the Highway 53 bridge over

Lake Lanier calls in divers to inspect the base

of the foundation.

But what they find isn't concrete or rebar.

It's a car sitting silently on the lake bed.

A salvage team manages to get the vehicle to the surface.

The license plate proves it belongs to Susie Roberts.

And inside, they discover

her skeleton, still behind the wheel.

This all but confirms the body found in 1959 belonged

to her friend Delia May Parker Young.

After 32 years, the mystery of what truly happened to

the women is finally put to rest.

And yet, Lake Lanier's body count keeps rising.

19 deaths in 1999.

18 in 2016.

13 in 2023.

Far more than other popular lakes in the region, most are

officially ruled drownings or boating accidents.

Deaths continue to the present day,

as recently as several months ago.

Ghostly sightings also continue, with people still

regularly reporting seeing the Lady of the Lake alongside

other disturbing entities.

Each new tragedy deepens the sense that Lanier must

be cursed.

So the question remains, why is this lake so deadly?

Is it truly haunted by a ghost?

Or is it something even more sinister?

Over the years, chilling reports of fatalities

keep surfacing at Georgia's Lake Lanier, earning it

a reputation as one of America's deadliest

bodies of water.

For decades, many have wondered what makes Lanier so dangerous?

Today, experts are focusing on the way it was constructed.

That's right. Lake Lanier is not natural.

It's a man-made reservoir.

Brunel University professor

and Lanier historian Dr. Charlie Garner, explains.

Lake Lanier was the brainchild of some rather heavy hitters in

politics in the Atlanta area in the early 1950s.

They needed flood control for the area.

Said they needed that drinking water for Atlanta.

They needed power generation for Atlanta.

So those were the reasons for the lake's creation.

To build the reservoir, the government constructed

a hydroelectric dam in Forsyth County.

As a result, an area of nearly 60 square miles was flooded.

And of course, there's a number of

families' homes.

Their farms were within that area of impoundment

for the lake.

The lake covered up whole communities,

like Oscarville.

If the name Oscarville is unfamiliar to you,

that's because it was literally washed off the map.

And with it, a dark chapter in American history was

also submerged.

After the Civil War, as you can imagine, there were

a great many slaves that were freed

in that particular area.

And a small community grew up on the banks, on the north bank

of the Chattahoochee, this small community

called Oscarville. And yet,

as throughout the South during the time,

there's a great deal of tension

between the white population and the black population.

[Josh] Despite the hostility, the black community thrives.

Then comes September 8th, 1912.

Mae Crow, a local white teenager,

vanishes on her way to her aunt's house.

[man] I think we found her!

[Josh] The next day, a search party finds Mae in the woods outside

of town, violently assaulted and clinging to life.

She never regains consciousness and dies two weeks later

in the hospital.

The usual suspects for the white population

would be the African Americans.

And so they quickly arrested three

on very, very flimsy evidence.

One was lynched right away.

The two others went to trial, but of course they were

convicted by an all-white jury, and they were executed as well.

That seemed to...

set off the powder keg of racial tension in that area,

and mobs of white people

stormed through the Oscarville community and drove

the African American families away from their homes.

When the government decided to create Lake Lanier,

the remaining property owners were bought out and structures

were demolished.

But not everything was cleared before the waters rose.

Lake Lanier is a dangerous lake because of the things that

are on the bottom,

but also the things that float up.

The history of the destruction in Forsyth County,

at Oscarville,

the covering up of all the people's properties

and cemeteries of loved ones.

And to this day, it is really unknown how many graves are

under Lake Lanier.

There are so many things under the lake,

large barns and houses,

structures still under the water.

Very easily, these could be the explanations for people

thinking that they've been grabbed by a ghostly hand,

when in actuality they've just got entangled with the branches

of a tree or a bush or some other thing,

some sort of building underneath the water.

And then you add into that the tragedies of families even

that were killed in car accidents

or like the story of the Lady of the Lake.

You see how these all come together to build up a feeling

that Lake Lanier is cursed. Is it haunted?

Is it evil in some sense?

Well, I know a lot of people

that do believe that very firmly.

But I've got to see a little bit more evidence.

[Josh] For historians like Dr. Garner,

the submerged structures of Oscarville offer a more

practical explanation for the high amount of accidents

here, especially given that the lake is now a major

summer tourism destination.

Experts have also pointed out that the lake waters can be

dark and murky, making it hard to find people who slip

beneath the surface.

Some critics have even called for the reservoir to be

drained, as the bodies of some who drowned there have never

been recovered.

But the fact remains that the lake is critical to

the area's water and power needs, and the lion's share of

the 11 million yearly visitors leave with nothing more harmful

than a sunburn.

But believers, especially those who swear to have seen

the so-called Lady of the Lake, remain convinced that

this place is home to powerful paranormal forces.

If you ask me, I'd say Lake Lanier is haunted.

By ghosts? Perhaps.

But certainly by the long and tragic history

submerged below its surface.

I've traveled to some incredible places,

but this might just take the cake.

Welcome to the glittering island utopia of Atlantis,

circa 9,400 BC.

But don't get too attached, because this place ain't gonna

be around much longer.

After getting too big for their britches, the Greek gods

have decided to punish the Atlanteans with floods

and earthquakes that will send this city

to the bottom of the sea.

At least that's the story according to

the philosopher Plato.

He'll be the first and only primary source for

the Atlantis legend.

And forever after, the world will wonder,

was Atlantis actually a real place?

Well, 11,000 years from now, a series of potential

discoveries will bring the world's most famous

sunken city back from the depths.

Meet Plato.

Maybe you already know him as a wearer of fine togas.

But if you don't, he's arguably

the most famous philosopher in Western history,

famed for his ideas about metaphysics, society,

politics, and most importantly for us right now, for recording

the story of Atlantis.

According to Plato's story, in the beginning,

the gods divide the earth among themselves,

with the deity Poseidon claiming the island of Atlantis.

After falling in love with a mortal woman,

Poseidon fathers ten sons, giving each a region

of Atlantis to govern.

Then he watches as the island blooms into a cultural

and technological utopia.

Legend says a massive seawall protects a network of harbors

filled with merchant ships from all over the world,

defended by a navy 1,200 warships strong.

The capital itself is constructed with concentric

rings of land and water, built around

a central island on which stands the royal palace

and a 600-foot long temple to Poseidon, clad in silver,

gold, and a mysterious metal called orichalcum.

Bridges and canals connect the water rings,

allowing large ships to navigate throughout the city.

Sophisticated aqueducts keep the farmlands fertile.

Plato writes that Atlanteans possess a divine nature.

Like a nation of Boy Scouts, they value friendship,

wisdom, and self-restraint, not wealth and luxury.

In short, it's nothing less than the ideal civilization.

But nothing perfect lasts forever.

Atlantis' leaders get greedy, deploying their formidable navy

to take over neighboring lands.

They conquer and enslave parts of North Africa and Europe,

expanding their vast empire.

Atlanteans turn from superheroes into supervillains,

their moral compass swayed by a lust for power.

Atlantis' rise seems unstoppable until it reaches Athens.

There, the Athenians rise up and repel the invaders.

But Atlantis' thirst for conquest

doesn't just provoke the Athenians,

it enrages Zeus,

the supreme leader of the Greek gods.

And he's about to unleash a punishment so cataclysmic

it will wipe their entire world off the map.

In 9,400 BC, the legendary city of Atlantis is a thriving

city state, according to Greek philosopher Plato.

But when its rulers push beyond their borders in a bid for

conquest, they enrage the gods, including Zeus, who resolves to

unleash a devastating punishment for their greed.

Plato records that a cataclysm arrives.

Massive earthquakes shake Atlantis apart.

Monstrous tidal waves pound

the once-mighty island empire into the sea.

Within a single day, all of Atlantis is wiped off the face

of the Earth as if it never existed.

Even though Plato first recorded the story of Atlantis

nearly 2,500 years ago, its cultural impact is as alive

today as it was in his time, inspiring countless books,

TV shows,

and movies.

We're looking at you, Jason Momoa.

But is any of it based in truth?

Well, Plato wrote this whole Atlantis story in two dialogues

called Timaeus and Critias.

Dialogues were basically a fictional conversation for

the purpose of discussing philosophy and ethics.

In this case, Plato writes about the ancient kingdom

of Atlantis as an allegory for hubris

and the dangers of unchecked power.

Some go even further and say the whole story is a way for

Plato to mourn the death of his beloved mentor, Socrates.

Socrates is, after all, Plato's hero,

a foundational Greek philosopher

champion in critical analysis and ethical living.

But in 399 b.C., an Athenian court condemns him

for corrupting the youth,

teaching them to challenge authority

and question the accepted truths of the city.

Rather than abandon his beliefs, Socrates chooses

to drink poison hemlock

and dies.

The death of Socrates sends shockwaves through Athens.

As for Plato, the loss of his mentor is life-changing,

causing him to dedicate himself to philosophy and to become

disillusioned with how small-minded he believes

Athens has become.

That's why his Atlantis symbolizes the glory Athens

once personified and how it too is succumbing to arrogance

and moral decay.

But is Plato's text really just a political allegory

featuring a fictional superpower?

Or was Atlantis a known historical place?

Let's not forget that many of the world's mythic stories have

some basis in truth, like the legendary Trojan War

and the now-discovered city of Troy.

Could that be the case with Atlantis too?

And if so, where is it?

In his text, Plato says that Atlantis lies just beyond

the Pillars of Heracles, now believed to be

the Strait of Gibraltar,

which would place it in the Atlantic Ocean.

Although Plato implies that Atlantis is in the Atlantic,

many have said that the Great Greek got the location wrong,

proposing some rather colorful ideas for where

it's really located.

Think Antarctica, or even closer to home,

that it was once part of Florida, specifically Tampa.

Seriously.

One popular theory even places Atlantis in the Bahamas.

And no, I'm not talking about some long-lost

five-star resort.

Seekers of the lost city claim that an unusual underwater

formation known as the Bimini Road is all

that remains of an Atlantean thoroughfare.

Several years ago, I had

a chance to investigate it for myself.

The rectangular blocks stretch as far as the eye can see,

forming a pathway that looks, well, designed.

To see what's going on beneath the mysterious blocks,

we deployed a sub-bottom profiler,

powerful sonar that can image 30 feet below the ocean floor.

Am I looking at structure down here?

What is this?

-That's solid seafloor. -OK.

It's not an anomaly.

The sub bottom profiler reveals that the Bimini Road is

definitely a natural rock formation.

Its paving stone appearance may be the result of ocean currents

wearing away the soft limestone sediment.

While I didn't manage to find Atlantis in the Bahamas,

other teams of explorers continue to search for it

all over the world, and it's pretty tough sledding.

One theory places Atlantis in the desert.

This is the Richat structure,

also known as the Eye of the Sahara.

It sits deep in the deserts of Mauritania in northwest Africa,

a vast circular formation nearly 15 miles across.

There's just one problem.

It's actually an ancient geological structure

and not man-made.

Another idea surfaces when marine biologists exploring

waters near Hawaii record strange topography

on the sea floor.

The location looked like a paved path, leading the team

to nickname it the Yellow Brick Road to Atlantis.

Later analysis showed it was a naturally fractured volcanic

rock and not an actual road.

In 2018, there was another potential discovery.

A team announced they had found evidence of Atlantis in

the Gulf of Cadiz, off the coast of Spain,

exactly where Plato hinted it might be.

Could this be the breakthrough that finally proves

this legendary city was real?

Several years ago, breaking news surfaced,

said to offer real evidence of Atlantis.

A British surveying and treasure hunting firm,

Merlin Burrows, announced they had identified

structures they believed to be part of Atlantis

in the Gulf of Cadiz,

along the coast of Spain's Iberian Peninsula.

Their claim is based on satellite images showing

geometric shapes beneath the surface, straight lines,

rectangular outlines, and large circular formations

that they believe to be buried buildings or other structures.

Stel Pavlo co-host of the Discovery series

"Hunting Atlantis," was among the first

to investigate their findings.

What made that story really sort of take off in 2018 is

because they had satellite images.

They were using the latest cutting-edge technology,

which had already been used to find hidden features in Egypt.

It was like, "Aha! At last, technology is gonna solve this."

This is what Merlin Burrows does.

They have a track record, so...

when they make a claim like this, you're certainly gonna

raise an eyebrow and listen.

The Merlin Burrows team claimed to have found submerged

structures laid out in concentric circles,

just like Plato's city plan.

But, just like the Eye of the Sahara,

it would take more than a few circles

to prove this was really Atlantis.

Other researchers went out there to take a look.

The circular features that they found

turned out to be ponds.

[Josh] Man-made ponds, yes.

But not from 11,000 years ago, from just 20 years ago,

designed to study plankton.

But there were other astonishing Atlantis claims

to come.

In 2020, a research team claimed Ireland once went by

another name, Atlantis.

They pointed to what they saw as striking parallels with

Plato's account of Atlantis, arguing that Ireland's

central plain, ringed by mountains,

mirrors the landscape he described.

Archaeologists remain skeptical.

While Stone Age artifacts have been recovered,

there's no evidence of the advanced society

Plato described.

And many say research like this tries a little too hard to make

the legend fit existing maps.

These theories are taking everything far too literally.

These are people with real passion,

but they bring their biases to it.

And instead of just dispassionately looking at what

there is, they kind of start filling in the blanks.

If you're gonna go looking for Atlantis,

you're looking for broader brushstrokes.

You're not looking for an exact match to what Plato describes.

[Josh] Although Stel doesn't believe there's a lost Atlantis

out there matching Plato's description,

he does still think there's some remarkable truth to the story.

In the period that we're talking about in

the fifth millennium b.C.,

there's what's called a meltwater pulse.

And what that is is water coming from glaciers that are

melting from the end of the Ice Age.

That all rushes out and starts flooding the coastlines

and starts sinking certain cities.

It comes rushing in, and it starts causing

all kinds of chaos.

That pretty much matches the type of thing that Plato is

talking about.

That catastrophe is in the record.

It's in the archaeological and geological record.

So that's a large element that Plato gets correct.

[Josh] There are indeed multiple historical occurrences of

nature wiping out entire civilizations

around Plato's time.

The volcanic eruption of Thera around 1.600 b.C. unleashes

massive tsunamis that devastate the Minoan civilization on

nearby Crete.

Centuries later, the Greek city of Pavlopetri is submerged

by rising seas.

And just a decade before Plato wrote of Atlantis,

an earthquake and tsunami

destroys the Greek city of Helike.

It seems highly plausible to me that there was some ancient

city that was destroyed in a flood that led to the myth.

It could be that we already found it and haven't made

the connection, or it could be something that's still lost.

As much as I'd love to believe in an advanced civilization

lost beneath the waves, it is sadly much more likely

that Atlantis is not a real place.

Atlantis is instead an allegory, a warning of how

power corrupts.

But what makes the story remarkable is we can now

confirm that it's a fiction based on fact.

Multiple ancient civilizations were lost

in cataclysmic terror, sunk beneath the waves.

And perhaps that's why the myth of Atlantis endures.

You can really believe it happened.

And you know what? It kind of did.

I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see you on the next expedition.