The idea of a lost, but highly advanced civilization has captured the interest of people for

centuries. Perhaps the most compelling of these tales is the story of Atlantis. The tale
appears again and again in books, television shows and movies. Bur the real question is,
where did the story originate and is any of it true?

The story of the lost continent of Atlantis starts with the Greek philosopher Plato. Plato had
planned to write a trilogy of books discussing the nature of man, the creation of the world,
and the story of Atlantis. Only the first book was ever completed. The second was never
finished and the third one was never even started.

Plato's book said that there had been a powerful empire located to the west of the "Pillars of
Hercules" on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. The nation there had been established by
Poseidon, the God of the Sea. Poseidon was father of five sets of twins on the island. The
firstborn, Atlas, had the continent and the surrounding ocean named for him. Poseidon
divided the land into ten sections, each to be ruled by a son.

The capital city of Atlantis was a wonder of architecture and engineering. The city was
composed of a series of concentric walls and canals. At the very center was a hill, and on
top of the hill a temple to Poseidon. Inside was a gold statue of the God of the Sea showing
him driving six winged horses.

About 9000 years before the time of Plato, after the people of Atlantis became corrupt and
greedy, the gods decided to destroy them. A violent earthquake shook the land, giant waves
rolled over the shores, and the island sank into the sea, never to be seen again.

So, is the story of Atlantis just a tale used by Plato? Or is there some reason to think he was
referring to a real place? Well, at numerous points in the dialogues of Plato's books, several
characters refer to the story of Atlantis as "genuine history". Plato also seems to put into the
story a lot of detail about Atlantis that would be unnecessary if he had intended to use it
only as a literary device.

On the other hand according to the writings of many people, Plato's student Aristotle
remarked that Atlantis was simply created by Plato to illustrate an idea or dream of him.
Unfortunately, Aristotle's writings on this subject, which might have cleared the mystery
up, have been lost centuries ago.

At my point of view, I honestly believe in the existence of Atlantis. But not as it is shown
in movies or books, as a wonder continent, extremely developed territory were strange
creatures and people existed. I believe that Atlantis existed as well as any other continent,
but for some natural catastrophe like a flood or earthquake, was sunk and nowadays remain
under the sea.