Legend of Atlantis

Quite a large number of people are persuaded that there is evidence of a great civilized state that existed 3,000 years ago in the Atlantic beyond the Straits of Gibraltar.Ancient Greek literature mentions it.Some experts now think the legend might refer to a lost civilization in the region of the Caucasus.We now know that waters have spread and receded over the south of Russia and Central Asia within the human period so that what are deserts were once seas,and where there is now hardly vegetation enough to sustain life there were once dense forests.The coast of the Black Sea may have been flooded out in some catastrophic manner at some date before the southward movement of the Aryan peoples,of which the ancient Greeks were a part.A rise of only 50 feet in sea-level would join the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea today.It is difficult for us to imagine the geographic vagueness of even the best-informed people 3,000 years ago.Wonder stories about a lost country to which one once went by sea through the Dardanelles,might easily get changed,as the Greek and Phonecian traders opened up the western end of the Mediterranean,into wonder stories about the same legendary land transplanted now to beyond the new found Straits of Gibraltar.The Caucasus is a region where many Greek fables and legends concentrate.It was the land of the Golden Fleece,and there Prometheus was chained to the Rock with vultures gnawing at his vitals.