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00:02The legend of Atlantis is one of the most alluring stories in human history.
00:08A tale of a lost ancient utopia, it has captivated and tempted thinkers and explorers for centuries.
00:15Yet the lost continent has never been found.
00:18Is Atlantis just a myth? Or was it a real place?
00:26I'm going on an exclusive digging for the truth expedition that could answer the mystery once and for all.
00:32Next stop, Atlantis.
00:34We'll use the very latest in underwater survey technology to scan the ocean floor in the most scientific search for
00:42Atlantis ever mounted.
00:44Have you ever used this to look for lost civilizations?
00:47And I'll investigate alternative theories about where and what the true Atlantis might be.
00:53I'll explore the geological record of a violent disaster that rocked an ancient world.
00:59This much movement could have occurred very rapidly.
01:03I'll dive a mysterious sunken ruin that's never been filmed before.
01:08And I'll take to the high seas on the edge of a war zone.
01:13Certain military interests might be curious about what we're doing here.
01:16We're digging for the truth and we're going to extremes to do it.
01:21Don't tell anybody.
01:22We may have found it.
01:45Don't tell anybody.
01:50We may have found it.
01:50There's the location of that lost world has remained a mystery.
01:54That is perhaps until now.
01:57Hi, I'm Josh Bernstein.
01:58I've come here to the Mediterranean to participate in what may be an historic expedition.
02:03And you're invited to come along.
02:05Join me on this very special two hour edition of Digging for the Truth as we go and search the
02:11lost civilization of Atlantis.
02:16Our exclusive Digging for the Truth expedition begins in the Mediterranean Sea at the port of Limassol on the island
02:24of Cyprus.
02:27It's the most scientifically advanced search for Atlantis yet undertaken.
02:33We're using the latest technology to survey what one group of explorers believes is the final resting place of the
02:41real Atlantis.
02:44They're convinced that the legend is literally true and that they've found the lost civilization's watery grave.
02:54But we'll get back to the expedition shortly.
02:57There are other theories about what the truth behind the story really is.
03:03And I've also been exploring some of those in my quest to find the real Atlantis.
03:13The first recorded reference to Atlantis came in the writings of the Greek philosopher Plato in the 4th century BC.
03:22He told of a great civilization that had existed over 9,000 years earlier.
03:28It was a powerful empire, a kind of utopia whose homeland was a lush paradise.
03:37Its capital was a magnificent and advanced city that was built in concentric circles across a wide plain and ringed
03:45with elaborate canals.
03:49Plato wrote that the people of Atlantis were descended from gods and possessed true and in every way great spirits,
03:59uniting gentleness with wisdom in the various chances of life.
04:08But according to Plato, the Atlanteans became too proud of their achievements and their arrogance offended the gods.
04:17Terrible earthquakes and violent floods struck the island nation.
04:21And in a single day and night of destruction, Atlantis disappeared forever.
04:29Lost in the depths of the sea.
04:35No one paid too much attention to the Atlantis story for the next 2,300 years.
04:43But then, in the 1930s, an American psychic named Edgar Cayce resurrected the story in the popular imagination.
04:52I first learned about Cayce in 2004 in Egypt, from John Van Auken of the Association for Research and Enlightenment.
05:00John believes that the people of Atlantis built Egypt's great pyramids.
05:05He's been following Cayce's readings and searching for Atlantis for over 20 years.
05:10Can you tell me in a nutshell, who made these pyramids?
05:13Well, Edgar Cayce ties this great pyramid and all the pyramids around the planet Earth into a very ancient period
05:21that goes all the way back to Atlantis
05:24and the great myths and legends of ancient peoples that were highly sophisticated.
05:31Cayce said that the pyramids and the Sphinx were built by refugees from the destruction of Atlantis.
05:39In 1940, he predicted that ruins from a part of Atlantis would be found off the coast of the Bahamas
05:45in 1968 or 69.
05:49Cayce's prophecy seemed to bear fruit when, in 1968, a strange rock formation was found off the coast of the
05:56Bahamian island of Bimini.
05:59The stones were square and nearly perfectly level.
06:03They appeared to have been cut and laid out, looking remarkably like a road.
06:10Later, flat stones were found with holes through them that looked just like ancient anchors found in the Mediterranean.
06:19Many people still think that the so-called Bimini Road could be part of Atlantis.
06:25That's where I began my investigation.
06:28The Bahamas may seem far from Plato's home in Greece, but it's consistent with his description of Atlantis.
06:36He wrote,
06:37It was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent,
06:44which surrounded the true ocean.
06:47So I went to the opposite continent, to the Bahamas, to meet up once again with John Van Auken.
06:53Nice to see you. Good to see you.
06:55Would you grab that? I'm on aboard here.
06:57Unfortunately, my trip to the Bahamas came in the middle of hurricane season.
07:02We had to keep a close watch on thunderclouds all day.
07:07As we dodged raindrops, John told me more about Casey's argument that the Bahamas could have been part of Atlantis.
07:15Atlantis was a huge islands nation. So the islands from just outside the Straits of Gibraltar to the Canaries, the
07:24Azores, all the way across to the Caribbean islands in this area, all were part of Atlantis. It was huge.
07:32So there would have been a continent between basically where the Atlantic is now.
07:36There is a belief that the mid-Atlantic ridge, which the Azores are the only remnant of that, was above
07:43the surface.
07:44So this section here would be the very southwestern portion of Atlantis?
07:49Exactly.
07:49And it would have stretched all the way across the Atlantic to the Straits of Gibraltar?
07:52That's exactly right.
07:54Okay.
07:56The Bimini Road stretches for about half a mile and is perfectly aligned north to south.
08:04John took me to dive on its western arm, the one with the distinct 90-degree bend.
08:10Oh, now this is Krista, and she knows...
08:12John's not a diver, so his friend Krista Brown is going to be my guide.
08:17You want me to dive, buddy?
08:18Yep.
08:18Perfect.
08:19And we'll start, jump off the back of the boat, start at the mooring pin, and then we'll work our
08:23way north and south.
08:24Okay.
08:25Sounds good.
08:26John gives me an underwater camera so I can capture some of what I see.
08:29Cool.
08:30Then I can come up and we can look at these together.
08:31All right.
08:42The Bimini Road does look remarkably like a man-made structure.
08:50The stones are very regular, almost like large paving stones.
08:56I can see squared edges, and how the rocks seem to fit together as though they've been placed and leveled.
09:05Not sure how that happened.
09:10Krista shows me one of the stones with a hole through it, which some people think may be an anchor.
09:18It's interesting, but I want to know how conclusive the evidence is that the road is man-made.
09:26Back on the surface, John and I look over the photos from the bottom.
09:31Yeah, you know, maybe there's a line here.
09:34Right.
09:34I was looking for some sort of sign of man-made stone working.
09:38Right.
09:39So, one could argue that there's some organization to the stones out there.
09:43Right.
09:43So, this was done above the surface at a time when Atlantis was not below the ocean.
09:49This is not old enough to be Atlantean.
09:52This is built on top of Atlantean ruins.
09:56So, this, the Bimini Road, the anchor points here, even though there's a relationship to Atlantis, this isn't Atlantis?
10:02No.
10:03Atlantis is deeper.
10:06Today, John believes Edgar Cayce's theory that the Bimini Road is part of Atlantis needs to be reevaluated.
10:13But he definitely thinks that the road is man-made, and that remains of Atlantis do exist here in the
10:19Bahamas,
10:20and are waiting to be found just deeper.
10:25After my dive on the Bimini Road, I meet up with Dr. Bill Keegan of the University of Florida.
10:31He's offered to give me the scientific perspective at another rock formation just like the Bimini Road,
10:36but this one's up on shore.
10:38We'll try.
10:39Let's take a look.
10:39Why don't we start with the actual formation of the Bimini Road?
10:43Okay.
10:43You know, the sharp edges, the sort of angular cuts in the rock, the anchor holes.
10:48Well, I think the first thing that we need to deal with is this is just a natural beach rock
10:52formation.
10:52Mm-hmm.
10:53If you look at the sand over here, this is what they call uolitic limestone.
10:59It's mixed with little bits of shell.
11:00Essentially, you're looking at the constituents of cement that are compressed into this beach rock.
11:07The smooth surface is caused by the wave action going over it, so you get these nice, level surfaces.
11:12Okay.
11:13But what about the angular cuts and formations, things that were, you know, called blocks,
11:17but these sort of angular, almost right angles?
11:20They're natural breaks.
11:21It's the way that the beach rock breaks.
11:23What happens is, as this rock forms and compresses, it also shrinks.
11:28Mm-hmm.
11:28And it looks like, because of the fractures, that somebody actually set these things down as paving stones.
11:34What about the anchors, though?
11:35The holes?
11:36The anchors.
11:36Yeah.
11:36Okay.
11:37This is very soft rock, and what happens is, in places like this, some of these are probably
11:43sea urchin holes.
11:45Yeah.
11:45Crab holes.
11:46Yeah.
11:46Get started, and then something hard, like a rock or a heavy piece of shell, will fall into
11:51one of these holes, and as the water, the waves come in, it creates a spinning motion,
11:55which actually drills out these holes, and you end up with things that look like anchors.
12:00So, again, there's a very natural explanation for what other people are saying was man-made.
12:04Right.
12:05Huh.
12:06Bill's explanations are pretty convincing that the Bimini Road isn't man-made.
12:11But what about John's theory that there could be other evidence of Atlantis still waiting
12:16to be found on or under the Bahamas?
12:19All right, into the jungle.
12:21To answer that question, Bill led me into the jungle, just off the beach to do some excavation
12:26at one of his own dig sites.
12:32We're headed into a Lucayan site.
12:35Those were the native peoples who lived here when Columbus arrived.
12:38So far, Bill's research has shown that the Lucayan were the earliest inhabitants of the Bahamas.
12:45Unfortunately, their presence here can be dated only as far back as 700 A.D.
12:51That's nowhere near early enough to be related to Atlantis.
12:55You just point and I'll dig.
12:57Okay, well...
13:00Still, Bill says that there is something to be learned about the Atlantis theory by digging
13:05here.
13:05Well, what we should find here are marine shells that were used as food.
13:10We'll find pottery from the ceramic vessels.
13:13But we're not here just to dig for Lucayan artifacts.
13:16We're really looking for bits of beach rock.
13:19According to Bill, carbon-dating rocks used by the Lucayan will provide us with a vital
13:24clue.
13:25The age of the Bahamas Islands.
13:28For Atlantis to have existed here, as John Van Auken believes it did, these islands have
13:33to be at least 12,000 years old.
13:35So this is what we're looking for?
13:37Yeah, this is the beach rock.
13:39Same stuff you were looking at on the beach.
13:42And the Indians used it in their hearths to line them for cooking.
13:46And so we typically find lots and lots of this stuff in Lucayan Indian sites.
13:50Because this material is calcium carbonate.
13:52It has carbon in it.
13:54And so it can be radiocarbon-dated.
13:56I didn't know you could carbon-date rocks.
13:58Well, ordinarily you can't, but limestone has a lot of organic in it.
14:01There's small bits of shell, there's byproducts from algae.
14:07And that usually has enough material, enough carbon in it that it can be radiocarbon-dated.
14:12Very cool.
14:13Okay, so let's bag them and tag them and take them to the lab.
14:16Okay.
14:17Next, it's a visit to the lab for some radiocarbon-dating to determine if evidence of Atlantis can be found
14:24in the Bahamas.
14:24And I head to the Mediterranean to get our exclusive expedition underway.
14:35I'm exploring the legendary story of Atlantis.
14:39I started by following the lead of the famous American psychic Edgar Cayce, which took me to the Bimini Road
14:46in the Bahamas.
14:49Archaeologists say that humans arrived in only 700 A.D., far too late for Plato's Atlantis.
14:58To resolve this debate scientifically, I left the Bahamas to visit Miami, Florida, and a place called Beta Analytic, the
15:08world's largest professional radiocarbon-dating service.
15:12There, I met archaeologist Bill Keegan with the beach rocks we dug up from the base of the Lucayan Indian
15:18fire pit.
15:20Bill explained that by carbon-dating them, we could determine the geological history of the islands, and whether a civilization
15:27dating to the time of Atlantis could have existed in the Bahamas.
15:31Hey, Darden, how you doing? Good to see you. Good to see you. Hello, Josh.
15:35Darden Hood is the president of Beta Analytic.
15:37If you would, please put on these safety glasses. We're in a chemistry lab, a lot of closed vacuum systems.
15:42We want to make sure we're well-protected.
15:44We started by handing over our sample from the fire pit to Darden.
15:48What's the first step?
15:50Since the outer part of the rock may have been penetrated by carbon from a more recent time, hydrochloric acid
15:56is used to eat away the contaminated outer layers.
15:59And it'll keep on going. If we leave it there, it'll eventually completely disappear.
16:05The next step is to take our cleaned up sample and crush it.
16:09We pump out the air in the flask and add more acid.
16:15The gas produced by all that bubbling is our carbon in the form of carbon dioxide.
16:20Now the gas is being collected.
16:22So what was air and then became a vacuum is now being filled with CO2.
16:27Correct.
16:29How do you get the gas from in here to where you can test it?
16:32Now that's a lot of fun. We use something called cryogenic pumping.
16:37Cryogenic pumping is simply a way to move our carbon from one place to another.
16:44Liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees centigrade turns the carbon to a frozen solid.
16:52The carbon gas that was in here is now compressed, frozen into this tiny little volume.
16:57And when we thaw it, it's going to move that way.
16:59That's pretty cool.
17:01Some warm water to thaw it out? Back into a gas it goes.
17:05We open up this stopcock here and now we have five liters of a very special carbon dioxide here.
17:12Yeah.
17:13It only contains the carbon from your sample.
17:15Ooh.
17:17Bahamas.
17:18CO2.
17:19Very cool.
17:21Now things get really complicated.
17:23It is good.
17:24To find out how old it is, the carbon needs to be a liquid.
17:27OK.
17:28First, Darden makes it into lithium carbide.
17:32That typically takes about 15 or 20 minutes.
17:35OK. Cooking show magic.
17:36OK.
17:37OK.
17:38Now that that's completed.
17:40Then, he turns it into acetylene.
17:43And after that, the last phase.
17:46Benzene.
17:47A liquid form of carbon.
17:49So that's liquid rock.
17:50Liquid rock.
17:51This test tube contained almost nothing but the carbon from my rock.
17:55As a liquid.
17:56So this was all worked out for us in the 1960s.
17:59That's how long this method's been around.
18:01To date our rock, we need to count a particular kind of carbon.
18:05The radioactive carbon-14.
18:08To do that, the sample goes in this machine.
18:11The liquid scintillation analyzer.
18:14Then, we get our results.
18:16And it spits out this sheet.
18:18So what date did we get, Josh?
18:20We got 14,920 plus or minus 100 BP before present.
18:25So call it 15,000.
18:2615,000 years ago.
18:27The rock, clearly in this case, was created during the time of Atlantis.
18:30The rock we dug up dated from the time of Atlantis.
18:34Does this mean that we found the hard evidence to support Edgar Cayce's theories?
18:40Actually, no.
18:42From the point of view of archaeology, it does the exact opposite.
18:47Bill explains why.
18:48Dating the stone only tells you when the stone formed.
18:50It doesn't tell you when people were around or even if they used it.
18:54Which raises another issue.
18:55Because, you know, the Atlantean question is really one that's interesting and worth scientific scrutiny.
19:00But if this stone is 15,000 years old.
19:03Yeah.
19:03It's on land.
19:04There should be some evidence of Atlantis from that same time period above water.
19:09If it exists.
19:10And no one has found it yet.
19:13Bill's point is archaeology 101.
19:17Things that date from the same time period should be found in the same place.
19:22If rocks from the time of Atlantis can be found on land, then artifacts from Atlantis should be found on
19:29land too, if they exist here.
19:31And to date, nothing from Atlantis has ever been found anywhere in the Bahamas.
19:38It seemed like the theory of Atlantis in the Bahamas was dead in the water.
19:44So I decided to head straight to the source, to Athens.
19:48Athens was the home of Plato, as well as the site of his academy, the school of philosophy he founded,
19:55and the prototype for the modern university.
19:59I wanted to find out what evidence there is for Atlantis, whether it's fact or fiction.
20:06I meet up with Anthony Contaratos, an expert in Plato's writings about Atlantis.
20:12Nice meeting you in person.
20:13Great to meet you.
20:15So what we know about Atlantis comes from Plato?
20:19Comes from Plato.
20:20As a matter of fact, it comes from two dialogues.
20:23Timaeus and Critias.
20:25Forget about whatever people have written subsequently.
20:29The original story comes from Plato, and we only have one source.
20:33And these two dialogues were written when?
20:36All that's left of Plato's academy today are these few foundation walls.
20:41But thousands of pages of Plato's writings still survive.
20:45It's in his dialogues, Timaeus and Critias, that Plato first mentions Atlantis.
20:51Through his character, Critias, who says the story, though incredible, is true.
20:58He relates that he first heard it as a child, listening in on a story told by his grandfather, who
21:04also swore that it was true.
21:08Critias' grandfather said the story was handed down to him by the famous Athenian lawmaker Solon,
21:14and was an important event from 9,000 years before.
21:20In the dialogues, Plato describes Atlantis in vivid detail.
21:25From these details, Anthony has isolated a list of criteria for identifying Atlantis definitively.
21:32So let's start with the facts. What do we know from Plato about Atlantis?
21:36Plato says that it was outside the Pillars of Hercules, and the Pillars of Hercules, as we know it from
21:43antiquity, are the Strait of Gibraltar.
21:46Also debatable.
21:47Also debatable, okay? Some people place it in Italy, some people place the Pillars of Hercules in Greece.
21:55So take your pick.
21:56So that's not exactly directions. They're just vague sense of where it used to be.
22:01It describes the topography of Atlantis, and it was set as concentric rings of land and water.
22:11So there are physical descriptions of the size of the island, and the topography of the island, and of the
22:17city itself.
22:18And of the city itself, and of the Temple of Poseidon in the middle.
22:23Anthony's list has more criteria taken from Plato's dialogues.
22:29The city was located on a coastal plain that faced south, and was close enough to Athens to wage a
22:35sea war.
22:36Bridges and canals linked the sections of the city.
22:39And a hill rose in the central-most island that held a massive temple complex.
22:45What are the clues? We have to go by Plato. That's nothing else.
22:49So if you decide that you have to stick to what Plato says, you'll come up with a number of
22:56criteria.
22:57And you cannot ignore those criteria.
23:00All of us who work on the problem have to abide by this criteria.
23:09The search for Atlantis still continues today.
23:12And while the number of clues from Plato might be finite, there are an infinite number of interpretations.
23:18Now I know someone who's interpreted these clues in such a way that he believes the lost continent has been
23:23found.
23:24And that's definitely worth checking out.
23:28Our exclusive Digging for the Truth expedition is just beginning here on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
23:36All right, very good. Let's lift up.
23:38We're at the port of Limassol on the southern coast of the island in the dockyard EDT towage and salvage.
23:46Every deep-sea expedition needs a ship, and this is ours, the EDT Argonaut, which normally is a salvage vessel,
23:52but we're retrofitting it for a specific expedition to find Atlantis.
23:59Like any other expedition, our first step is to prep the gear.
24:04Is this guy going to be able to load it on straight?
24:06Is it going to measure?
24:07It's a big job.
24:10Dozens of crewmen are racing around the ship, mobilizing it for departure.
24:15And all this activity is being supervised by expedition leader Robert Sarmash.
24:20Hey, Robert.
24:20Hi, Josh.
24:21How are you?
24:21Good to see you.
24:22And it's exciting times.
24:23It's very exciting.
24:24And this piece of equipment is critical to our expedition system.
24:26Absolutely.
24:27We've got about 20,000 feet of cable.
24:29We'll be surveying the ocean floor a mile below the surface, and using the best equipment available.
24:37Much of it has been brought in just for this mission.
24:39Where do you get a machine like this?
24:41Well, this doesn't exist in the eastern Mediterranean, so we actually have to bring it all the way from Scotland.
24:46And it's a very special equipment.
24:47I don't think there's more than a handful of them in the world, and it's going to work.
24:51It's going to work.
24:51It's going to work.
24:52All right.
24:52Let's get it up.
24:53All right, guys.
24:54Let's lift it up and put it on the ship.
24:55Coming up, we make our final preparations to set sail on what promises to be an historic voyage.
25:03Oh, it feels magnificent.
25:05And Robert gives me the full story of why he's convinced he's finally found the legendary Atlantis.
25:18I'm about to embark on an extraordinary voyage.
25:22Digging for the truth is mounting the most advanced scientific expedition ever to search for the lost continent of Atlantis.
25:30Expedition leader Robert Sarmast has been working towards this moment for nearly 15 years.
25:36Now it's all coming down to just a few short days.
25:40We're headed from our port here in Limassol, Cyprus, to a spot in the eastern Mediterranean, just 50 miles from
25:47the coast of Syria,
25:49where Robert is sure he's located in the central city of the vanished civilization.
25:55If it looks like there's a lot of activity going on here, it's because there is.
25:59From the moment we first step on the ship, it's ours.
26:01The charter begins.
26:02We have 24 hours to prepare everything we need, and then we leave port.
26:08Because of the time of year and the limited availability of a suitable vessel, we have just 72 hours total
26:15to conduct our work.
26:17And the clock is already ticking.
26:23Everything is tightly choreographed.
26:26It's a real team effort.
26:28The gear is loaded and ready as fast as safety allows.
26:33Even the slightest delay cuts into our research time.
26:38As the mobilization progresses, Robert and I sit down to talk about why he's so confident he's found the real
26:44Atlantis.
26:45You seem so convinced that it's actually out there.
26:48I am absolutely certain, having studied the ancient world, that Atlantis was a real place.
26:54What if someone said to you, though, Robert, there is no Atlantis.
26:57You're just wasting time, energy, money.
27:00It was a story.
27:02It's true.
27:03No.
27:04No.
27:05It's if you know ancient history well enough.
27:08Robert's fascination with Atlantis actually began 20 years ago, when he developed an interest in world mythologies.
27:15He was especially intrigued by the similarities and stories throughout the Near East about a great flood.
27:21In the Bible, the story of Noah.
27:25For the ancient Sumerians, the Epic of Gilgamesh.
27:29From Plato, Atlantis.
27:32It's really easy to sit back and say, no, it didn't exist.
27:35It doesn't take much effort.
27:36But when you do the research, you start to see that this could not have just been a myth.
27:41Something had to have happened.
27:42And we have this vivid description of the island, what it looked like.
27:45Why not look for it?
27:47In 1999, Robert began looking for a spot in the Mediterranean that would match Plato's
27:52geological criteria.
27:55Plato wrote that the city was on a level plain with very precise dimensions, equal to about
28:01230 by 345 miles.
28:04It faced south and was sheltered by mountains to the north.
28:09Robert had a topographic computer model of the Mediterranean built.
28:13It allowed him to lower the sea level in increments.
28:17When he brought the level down by a mile, he found a plain on the sea floor between Cyprus and
28:23Syria that he believes matches Plato's description.
28:28Robert's next step was to get a closer look at one particular spot that looked promising for the location of
28:33Atlantis.
28:36He made his first expedition to the site in 2004.
28:39On the 8th of November, we are Atlantis bound.
28:45He conducted side-scan sonar tests of the area, trying to build a more complete picture of what he thought
28:52could be the sunken plain of Atlantis.
28:54Great.
28:55Look at that.
28:56Oh, my God.
28:58What he found made him absolutely certain.
29:01Man, that is too cool.
29:04His sonar tests revealed strange ridges with sharp 90-degree bends.
29:11He was convinced he was looking at the walls of the city canals that Plato described.
29:18Robert believes the dimensions match Plato's descriptions perfectly.
29:23There isn't a shadow of doubt in my mind.
29:25That valley is the rectangular great plain of Atlantis.
29:30I have no doubt about that whatsoever.
29:32Now it's just a matter of using the best technology to verify this and to bring the final irrefutable evidence
29:38to light.
29:42Robert is confident he has the best evidence yet as to where Atlantis could be.
29:48So, we're bringing the best technology available back to the site to test his theory and find out once and
29:55for all if he's right.
29:57Ah.
29:58Let me introduce you to what is perhaps the most important part of our team, the towfish.
30:03It is the eyes and ears of this expedition.
30:06Inside this capsule, side-scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler.
30:10This is about to be loaded onto the ship.
30:12It will be one mile below the surface and almost three miles behind the ship dragging over the site to
30:18let us see what's down there.
30:23Sub-bottom profilers are typically used by the oil industry to look for new places to drill.
30:30But for us, it will be doing duty as a remote archaeologist.
30:36It uses sonar to penetrate through muck and rock, sending the data up to the ship in real time.
30:44We'll be able to tell almost immediately just what caused Robert's anomaly, whether it's a normal geological process or sunken
30:54ruins.
30:57Very important. I want to show you something here.
31:01This is what connects to the towfish, all the miles and miles of cable.
31:05But it's not just cable.
31:07There's electronic information coming through the coaxial liner that's going to send all the data from the bottom of the
31:13ocean up through the cable and into the computers and the bridge.
31:19With the mobilization nearing completion, I decide to take a tour of our home for the next 48 hours and
31:25meet our captain.
31:28Captain?
31:29Hi, Josh. Come on. Welcome to the bridge.
31:33Commodore Robert S. Bates, Captain Bob, is our nautical and maritime consultant.
31:38He's been an integral part of Robert Sarmass' team for the last five years.
31:42What we see here, of course, is the port of Limassol.
31:47It'll be Captain Bob's responsibility to make sure the ship keeps the towfish on course.
31:54With our time at sea so limited, we can't afford to have anything go wrong.
31:58When you were going through all your education to become a master of the seas, did you ever think that
32:03you'd be looking for Atlantis?
32:05I never thought in a hundred years.
32:07And now, are you adjusting to the reality that we're on a quest to find something that could be historic?
32:11You know, this is so exciting to me. This is sort of my capstone project and my capstone experience of
32:1950 years of maritime service.
32:21I know what I've been building to towards this last 50 years.
32:24Well, you know, keep our expectations in line. We don't know what we're going to find.
32:28Well, I know.
32:31Finally, after 24 frantic hours, the mobilization of our ship is complete.
32:37Here's to get these on. Joyous moments when we officially initiate the Atlantis Expedition 2006.
32:45For Robert Sarmast, years of research are coming down to the next two days.
32:50How does it feel to see your flags flying after all these years of planning?
32:53Oh, it feels magnificent.
32:55Yeah?
32:56Oh, yeah. You don't even know the half of it.
32:58How long have we been waiting for this?
33:00Oh, about 15 years.
33:0115 years.
33:02Something like that.
33:03Great.
33:05Up next, our expedition to search for Atlantis heads out to sea.
33:11But first, an alternate theory takes me on a journey into the center of a volcano.
33:16It's not going to explode while we're at it.
33:26I traveled to the Bahamas to test the theory that the island chain could be the remnants of the lost
33:32Atlantis.
33:33But I found no conclusive evidence to support that idea.
33:37Back on the other side of the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean Sea, I'm on an exclusive Digging for the Truth
33:43expedition to test Robert Sarmast's theory that the ruins of Atlantis lie a mile underwater between Cyprus and Syria.
33:52But before I arrived on Cyprus for our expedition, I put some other theories to the test, too.
34:02I went to the island of Santorini, about 100 miles southeast of the Greek mainland.
34:10Santorini is home to a volcano that destroyed an ancient island nation, just as Plato described.
34:19This is the town of Fira, which, as you can see, is perched precipitously on the edge of a cliff.
34:25But this is no ordinary cliff.
34:27This is a caldera, the edge of an ancient volcano, a volcano which some believe links this place with Atlantis.
34:37Plato wrote that Atlantis had alternate zones of land and water, larger and smaller in concentric rings.
34:45The Santorini of today does have a similar layout.
34:49The rim of the caldera surrounds a large bay with a small island in the center called Nea Khomeini.
34:58But that island seems much too small to be Plato's Atlantis.
35:04To find out why many people think this could be the location of the lost civilization, I met with Dr.
35:10Costa Sinalakis of the University of Southern California.
35:13So, as I explained, I'm exploring the parallels between Atlantis, as written by Plato, and Santorini, or I guess Thera
35:24is what this used to be called.
35:25So, the similarities between Thera and Plato's Atlantis.
35:28Well, a lot of scientists believe that if there was any truth to the myth, this is one of the
35:36most likely spots.
35:37Near the center, where this island is now, it was an entirely different island.
35:42It was bigger. It was circular.
35:45What you see here, you know, the caldera, this opened up, you know, after the eruption.
35:50So, in the past, this did have that circular description where you had an island in the center, surrounded by
35:56water, and then another piece of land.
35:57Yes. And all that gets blown into bits.
36:01So, the geological shape could match the description. What about timeline? When did this volcano arrive?
36:06Well, the best dates that we believe in is somewhere between 1620 B.C. to about 1550 B.C.
36:14And there's a lot of work going on now.
36:16That's about 8,000 years after the date Plato gave for the destruction of Atlantis.
36:21This would seem to mean this can't be the lost continent.
36:25At least, not literally.
36:28But Costas tells me, aside from the date, Plato's other criteria match amazingly well.
36:35It's definitely worth a closer look.
36:38If there was ever an Atlantis for Plato, it was here.
36:45Costas suggests that we take a trip out to the center of the bay, to see what the modern island
36:50of Neha Khomeini can tell us.
36:58Neha Khomeini means newly burned, due to the volcanic activity that created it.
37:07On the way out, we skirt the steep sides of the caldera rim.
37:12Plato wrote that the colors of Atlantis were red, black, and white.
37:18There's plenty of that here.
37:21Costas told me that these are the typical colors of volcanic rock.
37:30Plato also said that there were hot springs, another indicator of a volcanic land.
37:38Neha Khomeini is a very young island.
37:42It broke the surface only 300 years ago.
37:47We head straight for the crater in the center.
37:51I want you to look over there.
37:54There are two sulfur vents.
37:55On the left and on the right.
37:57And then, oh, you can see it coming out now.
37:59Smoke.
38:01So this is still an active volcano.
38:02In fact, this is a very active volcano.
38:05And on the other side...
38:06It's not going to explode while we're in it.
38:08Not today, no.
38:12Neha Khomeini is still being formed, and will eventually itself be destroyed in an eruption.
38:19Repeating a process that has taken place many times over the last million years.
38:274,000 years ago, though, the island that was here was much different than what we see today.
38:37It was significantly larger, reaching almost to the edge of the caldera.
38:44It was lush and fertile, and the sheltered bay supported a thriving city with a busy harbor.
38:50An important center of trade and power in the Mediterranean.
38:57Now, imagine the ancient island at the time before the eruption was much wider, closer to the rim of the
39:05volcano.
39:05So the entire rim was acting as a giant breakwater, sort of protecting this perfect island.
39:13To them, it was just a miraculously, magically shaped piece of land that made this place the greatest harbor in
39:20the Mediterranean.
39:20Exactly.
39:21But geologically, it was a bomb waiting to go off.
39:25And eventually it did.
39:27Kaboom.
39:27Boom. It's all gone.
39:32The eruption completely obliterated the island here in the center of the bay.
39:40Any settlements that existed on the periphery were buried under 100 plus feet of volcanic ash.
39:47But the civilization that built this utopia wasn't totally destroyed.
39:53Costas tells me that to get a better idea of what life on Thera was probably like,
39:58I should pay a visit to the homeland of the people who lived here, the Minoans, on the island of
40:04Crete, just 70 miles to the south.
40:07Most people go to Crete by passenger ferry.
40:11I found a better way.
40:23The palace at Knossos is the best preserved ruin of the Minoan civilization.
40:28And the best place to see what the city in the center of Thera might have been like before the
40:34explosion.
40:37Former curator Colin McDonald shows me around the site.
40:41I want to know how closely the Minoan civilization here at Knossos resembled Plato's description of life in Atlantis.
40:53Plato wrote that Atlantis was very advanced and had hot and cold running water.
41:00Here at Knossos, Colin shows me a remarkable link to Plato's writings.
41:05The terracotta water pipes are down here, down this hole.
41:11Now you see there, in individual sections, each one slots into the next, and it would be able to go
41:17gently around corners, as it were.
41:20And I guess as it goes from the wide end to the narrow, it's also gaining a little pressure.
41:23Yes, I think that's also true.
41:26It's the ancient equivalent of indoor plumbing, which would seem to fit Plato's descriptions of Atlantis pretty well.
41:32For the prehistoric period, this is quite unique.
41:37This is it?
41:37Yes, yes.
41:37Incredible.
41:38Okay, let's put it back under the grate.
41:40I'm also interested in the bulls on the palace walls.
41:45Plato wrote that the Atlanteans worshipped bulls, and that they had free reign in the Temple of Poseidon.
41:54What we're looking at now is the great relief bull fresco, which is at the northern entrance of the palace
42:02at Knossos.
42:02And the bull is an interesting image in Minoan civilization because it occurs elsewhere, notably on a marvelous fresco showing
42:11bull leaping, with young men and young women actually jumping over the bull.
42:19But it's interesting that there's a parallel between the Minoan civilization and their worshipping of bulls, or at least the
42:26iconography of bulls that's present here, and what Plato writes about in Atlantis.
42:31Yes, it's interesting that they both have bulls, but also we can point out that bulls were either sacred or
42:39important in several other, in fact almost all other, near eastern civilizations at the same time.
42:47Perhaps the similarity isn't as great as I was hoping.
42:49Not as specific.
42:51Not as specific.
42:52Not as specific. Okay.
42:52So you think that like, and as a storyteller, he's trying to set a timeline and this mood of a
42:58long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
43:01He's trying to reach back for this 9,000-year-old culture.
43:03It's the way he could flesh things out.
43:04Yeah, he says, I want something ancient, what's iconically old.
43:07Yes, yes.
43:08Boom, how about people that worship bulls?
43:09That's right.
43:11Colin thinks the Minoans may have provided Plato with some authentic-sounding details for his story, but these were not
43:18the people of Atlantis.
43:21Still, I'm intrigued.
43:23Fresco images recovered from Knossos show a society that appears just as idyllic as Plato's Atlantis.
43:31Actually, it's a pretty good match, except for the date of destruction.
43:37This event occurred 900 years before Solon, not 9,000 as written in Plato's dialogues.
43:45But there's an interesting theory that could explain this discrepancy.
43:55Plato wrote that the story of Atlantis originally came from the Egyptians.
44:00They told it to the Greek scholar Solon when he paid a visit to one of their temples some 300
44:06years before the time of Plato.
44:12In that age, the Egyptians counted time in lunar months, not just solar years.
44:19So it's possible that a simple error in translation could have entered the narrative.
44:26The Egyptians may not have been talking about an event that took place 9,000 years before, but rather 9
44:32,000 months.
44:36If this were the case, that would put the destruction of Atlantis at nearly the same time as the Cataclysm
44:42of Thera.
44:45So there's a decent case for Thera being Atlantis, if you allow for a little error in translation.
44:57But that's not a compromise Robert Sarmast is willing to make.
45:02The leader of our expedition is sure that Plato's text is the literal truth.
45:07The leader of our expedition is the literal truth.
45:10And only by following...
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