Lost Atlantis

While granting that Plato embellished many of the details of the legend, the author believes that there is a hard core of historical fact embedded in the concept of Atlantis. Archæological discoveries, particularly the work of Sir Arthur Evans and his successors in Crete, form the basis of this reappraisal and reconstruction of the legend, mainly in connection with the striking theory of the volcanic destruction of the Minoan Empire. Calling upon the very latest findings of volcanologists, seismologists and oceanographers, the author presents plausible evidence that the island of Crete was devastated by a great natural cataclysm about 1450 B.C. which also caused the disappearance of another adjacent island-empire. -- Book jacket.