Where can I find information on the legend of Atlantis?

Atlantis is a fascinating legend, but archeologists have never found any evidence for a city with this name. However, the island caldera of Santorini in the eastern Mediterraean Sea was a major seaport of the vast sea-based Minoan civilization of about 1800 BC. And just as Atlantis legend describes a cataclysmic destruction of Atlantis, the town on Santorini was destroyed by a large volcanic eruption in 1650 BC.

The photo shown here (taken by Space Shuttle astronauts in 1983) shows that Santorini is an elongated group of islands, about 15 by 17 km. The islands make a rough ring surounding part of the Mediterranean Sea. The northern half of this bay is the area of an ancient volcano that collapsed about 1390 BC, destroying "Atlantis". This was a huge eruption, with ash falling over parts of Turkey and Egypt.

The book The End of Atlantis by J.V. Luce was published in England in 1970 to popularize the idea that the Atlantis legend was real. Now, 25 years later, there have been many conferences and scientific papers that document the great likelihood of this theory. And Santorini continues to erupt, most recently in 1950, demonstrating that the ancient volcano is still alive.
Chuck Wood, University of North Dakota

Sources of Information
T.H. Druitt and V. Francaviglia (1992) Caldera formation on Santorini and the physiography of the islands in the late Bronze Age. Bulletin of Volcanology 54, 484-493.

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