Platon gives in his report about "Atlantis" two unambiguous geographic details for the location. At first: Atlantis was situated behind the pillars of Herakles (hyper ten heraklei nyssai). The greek word "hyper" can mean as well: "on the other side of",as "above",as "behind" and several other, which is here not interesting or applicable.
If you take it in the sense of "behind" or "above" and look at it in the view of the seafaring at that time -which was the only possibility to get from Egypt to Atlantis- it was situated at the coast of Iberia or Africa after passing the Street of Gibraltar. For seafaring at that time happened almost exclusively near to the next coast. Crossing the open sea, which was usually called "ocean" ,was only practised if it was sure and proved by experience that at the other side of the "ocean" was situated a country, which you could reach in a couple of days. But behind the Strait of Gibraltar there was no such country in the days of Platon until now.

The second unambiguous information in the report is, that the country that follows from Atlantis to the South, was the country of Gadeiros. There is no doubt at all, that Gadeiros is the later Gades, nowadays Cadiz. With that, the only possible position of the "Atlantis" described by Platon is situated in South-Iberia northern of the hilly country of Gadeiros.

Africa can be excluded and over that all remaining places in the world that could be possible following the remaining information given by Platon.
That is no new fact and there were and are several Atlantis-researchers seeing Atlantis for this reason in Andalusia, which is called in Arabian "andaluz". A name which is linguistic not far away from the Egyptian "Atlantis".
But until now all these arguments are not accepted as sufficient.
Therefore the German Atlantis-researcher Adolf Schulten felt obliged to dig in the manner of Schliemann at several places in the delta of the Guadalquivir in the beginning of the twentieth century. He offered up his whole property for that and however stayed without success.

Finding the probably right place was reserved to the local archaeology of the little town named "El Puerto de Santa Maria" between Cadiz and Jeres de la Frontera.
Since 1978 there was digging up on the hill of "Dama Blanca" which is positioned nearly 10 Km from the sea in front of a mountain.

From this mountain you can see clearly both named towns, the surrounding plain, the sea and the river Guadalete which is flowing into it. It is obvious that this was, strategically seen, a very convenient place for the foundation of a town. You must ask yourself, why Schulten had not seen the overwhelming fitness of this position.

Due to the results of the digging up until now, probably here was found the tell of the famous town "Tartessos" from the time between 1000 and 300 B.C., which was destroyed finally by the Romans.

It seems to be possible , that you can find under, or in the neighbourhood of it, the rests of the town of "Tharsis" from the time of 1600 until 1250 B.C., which was the ancestor of Tartessos and described by Platon under the name of "Atlantis". It was destroyed by a natural desaster.

Until 1998 there were found six layers (stratum) of settlement with clear pointing out to trade relations to the Greek thalassocraties.
The "Empire of Tartessos" and the preceding "Empire of Atlantis" of the Bronze Age comprised to todays stand of knowledge also other old towns in Andalusia as Huelva, Niebla, Carmona and Carambolo, in which were made considerable discoveries from the Bronze Age. Beside this, discoveries of old gold and copper mines are made in the recent time in the mountains north of the Andalusian plain. These mountains are nowadays called "Sierra Morena" and were described by Platon as the mountain range that protected the plain of Atlantis from the cold wind of the north. The plains of Andalusia are until now passed by canals corresponding to Platons description.

Other features of the Platon description as two harvests a year, damp wind of the Atlantic, rests of elephants, bull- and horse breeding , megalithic tombs, the incident of earthquakes, ideal living conditions for a great number of people, growing of all imaginable sort of plants and trees are also fulfilled nowadays in Andalusia.

If you look at the "islands positioned behind" of France, England, Ireland and the "opposite situated continent" of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark, which extends as far as Russia, is this country truely bigger than "Lybia and Asia put together" as Platon tells.

The mystery of Platonīs "Atlantis" seems therefore solved.

But this is only effective for the "Atlantis" of the Bronze Age, described by Platon. Besides that, there is the "Atlantis" which occurs in the myths of many nations of the world under different names and sunk in a terrible catastrophe which carried off a large part of mankind.

This catastrophe is known in the Christian world under the name of "The Flood". Following the knowledge of recent science, and there is nearly no discussion between all Atlantis researchers, it happened nearly 9500 B.C., that is 9000 years before the visit of Solon in Egypt, which was the basis of Platonīs Atlantis report. Platon also tells this in his report.

And with that begins the muddle and for a lot of people the chaos, that makes the report of Platon incredible. Because 9500 B.C. there was no Bronze Age on earth. There were no settlements in Greece and there was no town of Athens, which could resist the penetrating Atlantians, as Platon tells.

For the solution of this puzzle there is only one possibility. The 9000 years, which told the Egyptian priest to the "ignorant Greeks", were moon-years and not sun-years. In old times it was usual in Egypt, to count the years to the phases of the moon. An "Egypt-year" of that time corresponds nearly to a month of our calendar and went from full-moon to full-moon. For the seasons are not very distinct in Egypt this was much better to recognize than the position of the sun, which does not change the climate very much.

This calculation to "moons" was usual in all old cultures, as in Mesopotamia and also in the old calendar of the Celts.(D) The 9000 moon years must therefore be shared by 12,34, for the moon goes round the earth 12,34 times in a sun-year. Than you get 729 years. Added up to the time of 500 B.C., when Solon was in Egypt, you come to 1229 B.C. Following todays knowledge, 1250 B.C. happened the natural disaster in which Platons Atlantis sunk down and 1190 B.C. was the first battle between Egypt and the sea-peoples.

The natural disaster of 1250 B.C. caused a nearly 600 years lasting worsening of the climate , which was the cause of the "migration of the sea-people" as the Egyptians called it.
The consequence of this migration was, that the whole Near East as far as Egypt and India was historically unambiguous provable rolled up by the penetrating "Atlantian" people. They passed into history as "Sea-people" , "Aramaeas", "Arias" naming only some very good known.
But what happened to the mythical "Atlantis" of the Mayas and other nations before 11500 sun-years at 9500 B.C. The "Atlantis" of the Flood and where was positioned this "Atlantis" of many researchers.
It is truely proved and nearly undeniable, that the catastrophe of the Flood happened on the whole earth, for it is known in the myths of all old nations.

As cause of the Flood you can therefore eliminate local events like catastrophic explosions of volcanos. What is only possible is a cosmic event like the impact of a big asteroid or comet on earth. Because nobody has found a big crater of this time on dry ground the impact must have happened in the sea. The supposed impact craters are two gigantic holes in the sea ground south of the Bahamas in the so-called "Bermuda-triangle" in the western Atlantic.

This at least because America was struck especially hard by this catastrophe. Nearly all human and animal life and all culture disappeared in this area. America was thrown back in its cultural development by this catastrophe nearly 10000 years. It is hold for proved that almost the whole lowland and low mountain ranges were flooded by a gigantic wave. Also it is maintained by some researchers that some coastal areas in the west of America were lifted 3000 m in this catastrophe.

The gigantic wave arrived also in Europe, Asia and Africa. Thanks of the bigger extension of the land and stronger mountain ranges of the continents, the effect was not so complete here.

On protect situated mountains men and animals were spared out by the water and survived in climatic convenient situated areas also in catastrophic thunderstorms and cold spells, which followed the catastrophe and went on for nearly 1000 years. In the weather statistic of earth this time is known as Dryas or Time of Tundras.

Following the today predominantly accepted theory, the enormous impact of the asteroid caused some rolling of the earth spin with following postponement of the poles of 3200 Km to the pole position of today. The prior position of the North Pole was probably the southern point of Greenland, where is positioned today only the magnetic North Pole. This could mean that earthīs axis was vertical to the earthīs orbit round the sun before this postponement of the poles. This position is physically seen the normal position and more stable than todays inclination of 23 degrees.(D)

This would mean, that before the postponement of the poles, there were no seasons on earth. Because of that, the climate was much more quiet and consistent. The surface of the water on earth and especially in the Atlantic was 150 m lower than today and there existed a large number of big islands and large areas round the coasts of today. The Atlantic was a calm bathing pool like today some regions of the Pacific and it was possible to get from island to island with simple boats.

That means, the earth was in that time really the paradise which exists in the myths of many nations. In many regions of the world there was a big lowland like "Atlantis" in front of the continents and islands. These lowlands sunk in the rising of the water surface of nearly 180 m after the catastrophe. So it is explained, that in nearly all regions of the world there are Atlantis-legends and discoveries of sunken great cultures.

Also the before told calendar to "moons" of the old nations would find with this its natural explanation and make clear why, for example, the old Celts had a calendar period of five years (D) and not of one. Also explained is the amazing meaning of the observation of sun, moon and stars, the changing of the length of night and day and their effect on the nature by men living about 5000 B.C.

All this was new for them and they tried to explain these difficult occurrences and put it in an order. We, men of today, are adapted to this situation and we have developed furnishings which enable us to live sufficient comfortable under these conditions.

Men living at 5000 B.C. began with that development and probably still hoped, that the conditions of their lost paradise came back. This hope is no more existent in todays mankind and we are trying to create our little paradise of ourselves.

* Karl Juergen Hepke is graduate engineer and since 1980 working at the research of early history . He is author of books and editor of the Internet-sites www.TOLOS.de and www.ATLIS.de

Read to this, (for the moment only available in German language) :

DIE GESCHICHTE VON ATLANTIS, der vergessene Ursprung unserer Kultur
by Karl Juergen Hepke
TRIGA-DER VERLAG, D 63584 Gruendau-Rothenbergen, Germany, 2nd Edition, Hardcover, 268 Pages, EUR 22,00, ISBN 978-3-89774-539-1 ,