All language subtitles for Expedition.Files.S04E05.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

On this episode of
"Expedition Files"...

For centuries, sailors feared
a monster called the Kraken,

which dragged ships
to their doom.

But what if their stories were
rooted in something real?

Now, a creature from the depths
has been found alive that might

expose the truth behind
the legendary Kraken.

Then, Georgia's largest lake is
also its deadliest.

With decades of mysterious
drownings fueling whispers of

a supernatural curse.

But insights into the lake's
dark past may finally shed

light on these fatal tragedies.

And Atlantis, the ancient
metropolis said to be sunk

below the waves by the wrath of
angry gods.

Is there any historic basis
behind the iconic myth?

After a series of
potential discoveries,

we reveal all.

In the corridors of time

are mysteries that
defy explanation.

Now, I'm traveling through
history itself

on a search for the truth.

New evidence.

Shocking answers.

I'm Josh Gates.

And these...

are my "Expedition Files."

I spend more time than most
on or under the water,

from zero visibility flooded
pyramids in Sudan

to the swirling seas of
the Mediterranean.

Honestly, I owe most of
my career to Dramamine.

But the thing is, if you're in
the business of adventure,

there's nowhere more exciting
or mysterious than

the watery depths.

And tonight, we look at three
files that prove just that,

plunging deep to find secrets
hidden below the surface.

We begin where else but out
on the wild ocean,

the North Sea to be exact.

And you're about to experience
one of the world's

most legendary
nautical encounters.

It's the 12th century,
and this crew of Norse sailors

is among the hardiest on
the high seas.

But they're about to
be humbled.

Moments from now, according to
an extraordinary written

account, this vessel will be
ambushed from the depths

by a terrifying
and gigantic monster.

The beast will earn a name
that will echo

through the centuries,

The Kraken.

Like Nessie and Bigfoot,
it will take its place among

the pantheon of
legendary creatures.

But 800 years from now,
shocking scientific evidence

will suggest this mythic sea
monster might be

more than just a fantasy.

[ominous music playing]

[Josh] As the tale goes,
the first sign of something

out of the ordinary is when
the Norse crew notices fish

appearing in abundance,

thousands of them thrashing
near the surface.

Then comes the smell,
something foul, something evil.

In the salt air,
there's a sulfurous stench that

burns the nostrils.

At that moment, it's said that
a crewman spots a small island

dead ahead, but one not
on their charts,

like a slick black rock
in the ocean.

But it's no rock.

It's alive.

[sinister tones playing]

The crew scrambles to evade
the creature, but it attacks.

A colossal mass of arriving
tentacles grabs the ship,

snatching sailors
from the deck.

Legend says that the horrified
Norsemen fight back,

but it's futile
against the onslaught.

At last,
the Leviathan submerges,

forming a whirlpool in its wake
as it drags the ship

and her crew into
the watery abyss.

Supposedly, days after this
sea monster encounter,

a lone survivor washes ashore.

Exhausted and waterlogged,
the terrified sailor has not

only escaped the clutches of
the beast, but he lives to

spread the tale far and wide.

The survivor shares
his stunning story with

Norway's King Sverre.

The king's personal historian
formally records

the tale around 1180.

It's the first known written
account of a monster that will

one day be called The Kraken.

Over the next few centuries,
many more reports emerge of

confrontations with
a similar creature.

Swedish clergyman Olaus Magnus
records multiple sea monster

encounters in his 1555 book,

"History of
the Northern Peoples."

Magnus also illustrated a large
creature with squid-like

tentacles and a serpent body
that some say is the first

depiction of the Kraken.

Then, in 1734, Dano-Norwegian
missionary Hans Egede

reported sighting a sea creature
near Greenland,

describing it as, quote,
"As thick as our ship and three

to four times as long,
with a long, undulating body."

He also recounts how it dove
back under the waves,

stirring up
a massive whirlpool.

Later, in the 1750s it's Danish
maritime historian

Erik Pontoppidan who finally
names the creature the Kraken,

which means something
twisted or crooked.

As more and more sailors share
their extraordinary eyewitness

tales, a consensus emerges.

The creature resembles a squid,
but one of

monstrous proportions.

But with no evidence of squids
this large, the Kraken becomes

something every seafarer dreads
and every scientist questions.

In 1870, tales of the Kraken
inspire Jules Verne to write

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,"
which features an attack by

giant squids, which he refers
to as devil fish.

The Kraken has become a thing
of popular fantasy,

but now, potential evidence
of a real life monster

is about to surface.

In 1873, the carcass of

a massive squid, much larger
than any known species,

washes ashore in
Newfoundland, Canada.

The extraordinary specimen is
examined by

an amateur biologist,
Reverend Moses Harvey,

who measures a seven-foot-long
body with tentacles stretching

another 24 feet in length.

This specimen becomes
the first formally identified

species of Architeuthis dux,
also known as the giant squid.

Is this creature what
seafarers through history

have been reporting?

Has the truth of the Kraken
finally been revealed?

[Josh] In the late 1800s,

remains of an enormous
giant squid wash ashore.

Could this be the real creature
behind the legendary Kraken?

To learn more about this most
mysterious species,

scientists need to find one
alive, but it won't be easy.

In fact, it will take
another 131 years.

Marine scientist
Matthew Mulrennan,

who founded a company dedicated
to finding and filming

the elusive colossal squid,
explains how it was

finally discovered.

As a marine scientist, I had
become really fascinated with

the colossal squid because
it lives in the deep sea.

It's such a foreign environment
for us.

It's so hard to do
research there.

And for hundreds of years,

the myth of the Kraken
was worldwide

and there was legends of these
huge squids out in the ocean.

But then the myth
became reality.

In 2004, off of
Ogasawara Island in Japan,

researchers captured something
truly amazing.

[Josh] Japanese zoologist
Tsunemi Kubodera

and his team lowered a specially
designed baited camera

nearly 3,000 feet
beneath the surface

into a world rarely seen
by human eyes.

And after centuries of rumor
and fleeting evidence,

the giant squid finally
revealed itself.

The camera records a massive
giant squid surging out

of the darkness,
attacking the bait with

speed and force.

One of its long tentacles
lashes out and becomes

entangled, allowing the team to
photograph the animal alive in

its natural habitat for
the very first time.

The squid got caught on
the lure at 3,000 feet depth.

And then as they were trying to
pull it back to the surface,

it broke free, and one of
its arms actually detached.

[Josh] The squid may have lost
a tentacle in the encounter

with the camera,
but with the ability to regrow

appendages, it likely survived.

The images confirmed what
scientists had long suspected.

The giant squid is no passive
deep-sea drifter,

but a powerful active predator,
estimated to reach nearly

27 feet in length.

So this was truly an amazing
moment for marine science.

For hundreds of years,
we knew that giant squids were

out there in the ocean.

They had found bits and pieces
in the stomach of sperm whales.

They'd heard tales from
fishermen and other scientists

of them washing up in
Newfoundland and in Norway.

But they'd never been able to
see the giant squid and how it

behaves in the deep sea.

[Josh] Those groundbreaking
photographs sparked a surge of

new exploration.

In 2012, researchers lowered
a specialized deep sea

video camera to a depth of
about half a mile,

and what they filmed
was jaw-dropping.

For the first time,
a giant squid was captured

alive on video,
its long tentacles reaching

and probing
through the darkness.

Using a stealthy low-light
camera system, researchers made

a key discovery.

Giant squid are visually
driven predators.

They got that first close-up
of the giant squid, it kind of

changed a lot of perceptions.

This wasn't a terrifying
sea monster.

This is a beautiful animal
that undulates

in really interesting ways.

[Josh] And seven years later,
there'll be another

stunning squid encounter.

In 2019, using the same system
that they used off the coast of

Japan, they were able to again
film a giant squid

on video in the Gulf of Mexico.

[Josh] This squid was measured
to be around 10 feet long,

but was believed to be
just a juvenile.

Most sightings appear to
involve younger specimens,

raising a chilling possibility.

If these are the juveniles,
far larger giants may still

lurk in the ocean's
deepest reaches.

Scientists now theorize there
could be squids out there in

the deepest oceans that are
even larger than

these specimens,
perhaps as huge as 70 feet.

There's also remarkable
evidence of attacks on

sperm whales from monster squid.

In the southern hemisphere,
whales have been found with

huge scars from the barbed,
swiveling hooks

of the colossal
squid's tentacles.

Thanks to modern scientific
observations and discoveries,

many believe the legendary
Kraken has finally

been unmasked.

It turns out it's no myth,
but a very real giant squid.

[Matthew]
The Kraken is a sailor-eating,
ship-sinking sea monster.

For hundreds of years
it all became a legend and myth.

Well, the Kraken is a myth,
but the giant squid isn't.

The scientific reality is that
we have live giant squids

out in the ocean.

And giant squids can reach
extraordinary sizes.

It is possible these early
mariners did see a giant squid

out there in the ocean.

And what they saw could have
been the foundation for

the legend of the Kraken.

I could say with pretty good
confidence that there are

far larger squids than
we've been able to find

still out there in the ocean
left to discover.

But whether the Kraken's size...
Who knows?

If a monster squid can take on
a 60 foot sperm whale,

is it that much of a stretch to
imagine that it also might have

taken on something like, oh,
I don't know, a 12th century

Norse trading ship?

Those sailors may well have
encountered 40 foot tentacles

bubbling up from the deep.

Then, through countless
re-tellings, and no doubt

a fair amount of mead,
the story may have transformed

into a terrifying battle with
an island-sized monster.

In the end, the fearsome Kraken
may just be a case of

a tall squid twisted into
an even taller tale.

It's November 14th,
1959, a beautiful morning on

Georgia's Lake Lanier,
but, behind me,

a shocking crime scene.

A lone fisherman was
casting for bass

but reeled in a nightmare.

The badly decomposed body of
a woman in a blue dress,

her hands missing.

Even more shocking, dozens of
people will later report seeing

the ghost of this woman,
who'll become known as

the Lady of the Lake.

These sightings will fuel
the belief that this place is

cursed, and the body count will
seemingly back that up.

By the 2020s, an estimated 700
will have drowned here.

Now, a dark history long hidden
deep below the surface reveals

the horrifying truth
lurking in Lake Lanier.

The tragedy of the woman
found in the lake begins

a year and a half earlier.

On April 16th, 1958, 22-year-old
Delia May Parker Young

and her friend,
37-year-old Susie Roberts,

are dancing the night away
at the local roadhouse.

The two young mothers are
enjoying a rare night off.

Around 11 PM, they hop into
Susie's Ford sedan,

heading home in the direction
of Lake Lanier,

taking the Highway 53 bridge.

They are never seen again.

The next day, tire marks near
the bridge lead some to believe

the women lost control
and plunged into the water.

Police drag the lake
and scour the shoreline,

but come up empty-handed.

It's as if the women
simply vanished.

18 months later,
our fisherman makes

his ghastly discovery.

Police suspect the dead woman
is Delia May Parker Young,

who was wearing a blue dress
the night she went missing.

But with her advanced state
of decomposition,

the tattered shreds of
sun-bleached fabric are not

enough to make a definitive ID.

And there's still no sign of
Susie Roberts or the car.

The mystery of what happened to
the two women hangs in the air

like the lake's heavy mist.

And that's when the ghost
stories begin.

Drivers along State Route 53
tell of a spectral woman in

a blue dress missing her hands,
pacing the bridge at night as

if searching for something.
Or someone.

Boaters and fishermen whisper
of strange encounters

near the bridge.

A shadowy figure in blue
gliding along the shoreline,

then vanishing into the mist.

Swimmers report something
even more chilling.

A sudden grip at their ankle,
pulling them under.

These stories give birth
to a legend.

The Lady of the Lake.

Forever haunting
Lanier's waters.

Believers say she's the ghost
of Delia May Parker Young.

But Delia's far from the lake's
last victim.

On Christmas Day 1964,
a station wagon packed with

two families swerves off
the bridge and sinks.

Eleven people go under.
Only four surface alive.

Two adults and five children
are lost forever.

Over the years, hundreds more
perish in the lake,

and its infamy grows.

Then, in 1990,
there's a shocking discovery

that splashes the name
Lake Lanier across

newspapers nationwide.

A construction crew working on
the Highway 53 bridge over

Lake Lanier calls in divers to
inspect the base

of the foundation.

But what they find isn't
concrete or rebar.

It's a car sitting
silently on the lake bed.

A salvage team manages to get
the vehicle to the surface.

The license plate proves
it belongs to Susie Roberts.

And inside, they discover

her skeleton, still
behind the wheel.

This all but confirms the body
found in 1959 belonged

to her friend
Delia May Parker Young.

After 32 years, the mystery of
what truly happened to

the women is finally put
to rest.

And yet, Lake Lanier's
body count keeps rising.

19 deaths in 1999.

18 in 2016.

13 in 2023.

Far more than other popular
lakes in the region, most are

officially ruled drownings
or boating accidents.

Deaths continue to
the present day,

as recently as
several months ago.

Ghostly sightings also
continue, with people still

regularly reporting seeing
the Lady of the Lake alongside

other disturbing entities.

Each new tragedy deepens
the sense that Lanier must

be cursed.

So the question remains,
why is this lake so deadly?

Is it truly haunted by a ghost?

Or is it something even
more sinister?

Over the years,
chilling reports of fatalities

keep surfacing at Georgia's
Lake Lanier, earning it

a reputation as one of
America's deadliest

bodies of water.

For decades, many have wondered
what makes Lanier so dangerous?

Today, experts are focusing on
the way it was constructed.

That's right.
Lake Lanier is not natural.

It's a man-made reservoir.

Brunel University professor

and Lanier historian
Dr. Charlie Garner, explains.

Lake Lanier was the brainchild
of some rather heavy hitters in

politics in the Atlanta area
in the early 1950s.

They needed flood control
for the area.

Said they needed that
drinking water for Atlanta.

They needed power generation
for Atlanta.

So those were the reasons for
the lake's creation.

To build the reservoir,
the government constructed

a hydroelectric dam in
Forsyth County.

As a result, an area of nearly
60 square miles was flooded.

And of course,
there's a number of

families' homes.

Their farms were within that
area of impoundment

for the lake.

The lake covered up
whole communities,

like Oscarville.

If the name Oscarville is
unfamiliar to you,

that's because it was literally
washed off the map.

And with it, a dark chapter in
American history was

also submerged.

After the Civil War,
as you can imagine, there were

a great many slaves
that were freed

in that particular area.

And a small community grew up
on the banks, on the north bank

of the Chattahoochee,
this small community

called Oscarville.
And yet,

as throughout the South
during the time,

there's a great deal of tension

between the white population
and the black population.

[Josh] Despite the hostility,
the black community thrives.

Then comes September 8th, 1912.

Mae Crow, a local
white teenager,

vanishes on her way
to her aunt's house.

[man] I think we found her!

[Josh]
The next day, a search party
finds Mae in the woods outside

of town, violently assaulted
and clinging to life.

She never regains consciousness
and dies two weeks later

in the hospital.

The usual suspects for
the white population

would be the African Americans.

And so they quickly
arrested three

on very, very flimsy evidence.

One was lynched right away.

The two others went to trial,
but of course they were

convicted by an all-white jury,
and they were executed as well.

That seemed to...

set off the powder keg of
racial tension in that area,

and mobs of white people

stormed through the Oscarville
community and drove

the African American families
away from their homes.

When the government decided to
create Lake Lanier,

the remaining property owners
were bought out and structures

were demolished.

But not everything was cleared
before the waters rose.

Lake Lanier is a dangerous
lake because of the things that

are on the bottom,

but also the things that
float up.

The history of the destruction
in Forsyth County,

at Oscarville,

the covering up of all
the people's properties

and cemeteries of loved ones.

And to this day, it is really
unknown how many graves are

under Lake Lanier.

There are so many things
under the lake,

large barns and houses,

structures
still under the water.

Very easily, these could be
the explanations for people

thinking that they've been
grabbed by a ghostly hand,

when in actuality they've just
got entangled with the branches

of a tree or a bush
or some other thing,

some sort of building
underneath the water.

And then you add into that
the tragedies of families even

that were killed in
car accidents

or like the story of
the Lady of the Lake.

You see how these all come
together to build up a feeling

that Lake Lanier is cursed.
Is it haunted?

Is it evil in some sense?

Well, I know a lot of people

that do believe that
very firmly.

But I've got to see
a little bit more evidence.

[Josh]
For historians like Dr. Garner,

the submerged structures of
Oscarville offer a more

practical explanation for
the high amount of accidents

here, especially given that
the lake is now a major

summer tourism destination.

Experts have also pointed out
that the lake waters can be

dark and murky, making it hard
to find people who slip

beneath the surface.

Some critics have even called
for the reservoir to be

drained, as the bodies of some
who drowned there have never

been recovered.

But the fact remains that
the lake is critical to

the area's water and power
needs, and the lion's share of

the 11 million yearly visitors
leave with nothing more harmful

than a sunburn.

But believers, especially those
who swear to have seen

the so-called Lady of the Lake,
remain convinced that

this place is home to
powerful paranormal forces.

If you ask me, I'd say
Lake Lanier is haunted.

By ghosts?
Perhaps.

But certainly by
the long and tragic history

submerged below its surface.

I've traveled to some
incredible places,

but this might just
take the cake.

Welcome to the glittering
island utopia of Atlantis,

circa 9,400 BC.

But don't get too attached,
because this place ain't gonna

be around much longer.

After getting too big for
their britches, the Greek gods

have decided to punish
the Atlanteans with floods

and earthquakes that
will send this city

to the bottom of the sea.

At least that's the story
according to

the philosopher Plato.

He'll be the first and only
primary source for

the Atlantis legend.

And forever after,
the world will wonder,

was Atlantis actually
a real place?

Well, 11,000 years from now,
a series of potential

discoveries will bring
the world's most famous

sunken city back
from the depths.

Meet Plato.

Maybe you already know him as
a wearer of fine togas.

But if you don't, he's arguably

the most famous philosopher
in Western history,

famed for his ideas about
metaphysics, society,

politics, and most importantly
for us right now, for recording

the story of Atlantis.

According to Plato's story,
in the beginning,

the gods divide the earth
among themselves,

with the deity Poseidon claiming
the island of Atlantis.

After falling in love with
a mortal woman,

Poseidon fathers ten sons,
giving each a region

of Atlantis to govern.

Then he watches as the island
blooms into a cultural

and technological utopia.

Legend says a massive seawall
protects a network of harbors

filled with merchant ships from
all over the world,

defended by a navy
1,200 warships strong.

The capital itself is
constructed with concentric

rings of land and water,
built around

a central island on which
stands the royal palace

and a 600-foot long temple to
Poseidon, clad in silver,

gold, and a mysterious metal
called orichalcum.

Bridges and canals connect
the water rings,

allowing large ships to navigate
throughout the city.

Sophisticated aqueducts keep
the farmlands fertile.

Plato writes that Atlanteans
possess a divine nature.

Like a nation of Boy Scouts,
they value friendship,

wisdom, and self-restraint,
not wealth and luxury.

In short, it's nothing less
than the ideal civilization.

But nothing perfect
lasts forever.

Atlantis' leaders get greedy,
deploying their formidable navy

to take over neighboring lands.

They conquer and enslave parts
of North Africa and Europe,

expanding their vast empire.

Atlanteans turn from
superheroes into supervillains,

their moral compass swayed by
a lust for power.

Atlantis' rise seems unstoppable
until it reaches Athens.

There, the Athenians rise up
and repel the invaders.

But Atlantis' thirst
for conquest

doesn't just provoke
the Athenians,

it enrages Zeus,

the supreme leader of
the Greek gods.

And he's about to unleash
a punishment so cataclysmic

it will wipe their entire world
off the map.

In 9,400 BC, the legendary city
of Atlantis is a thriving

city state, according to
Greek philosopher Plato.

But when its rulers push beyond
their borders in a bid for

conquest, they enrage the gods,
including Zeus, who resolves to

unleash a devastating
punishment for their greed.

Plato records that
a cataclysm arrives.

Massive earthquakes shake
Atlantis apart.

Monstrous tidal waves pound

the once-mighty island empire
into the sea.

Within a single day, all of
Atlantis is wiped off the face

of the Earth as if
it never existed.

Even though Plato first
recorded the story of Atlantis

nearly 2,500 years ago,
its cultural impact is as alive

today as it was in his time,
inspiring countless books,

TV shows,

and movies.

We're looking at you,
Jason Momoa.

But is any of it based
in truth?

Well, Plato wrote this whole
Atlantis story in two dialogues

called Timaeus and Critias.

Dialogues were basically
a fictional conversation for

the purpose of discussing
philosophy and ethics.

In this case, Plato writes
about the ancient kingdom

of Atlantis as an allegory
for hubris

and the dangers of
unchecked power.

Some go even further and say
the whole story is a way for

Plato to mourn the death of
his beloved mentor, Socrates.

Socrates is, after all,
Plato's hero,

a foundational
Greek philosopher

champion in critical analysis
and ethical living.

But in 399 b.C.,
an Athenian court condemns him

for corrupting the youth,

teaching them to
challenge authority

and question the accepted
truths of the city.

Rather than abandon
his beliefs, Socrates chooses

to drink poison hemlock

and dies.

The death of Socrates sends
shockwaves through Athens.

As for Plato, the loss of
his mentor is life-changing,

causing him to dedicate himself
to philosophy and to become

disillusioned with
how small-minded he believes

Athens has become.

That's why his Atlantis
symbolizes the glory Athens

once personified and how it too
is succumbing to arrogance

and moral decay.

But is Plato's text really
just a political allegory

featuring
a fictional superpower?

Or was Atlantis a known
historical place?

Let's not forget that many of
the world's mythic stories have

some basis in truth,
like the legendary Trojan War

and the now-discovered city
of Troy.

Could that be the case with
Atlantis too?

And if so, where is it?

In his text, Plato says that
Atlantis lies just beyond

the Pillars of Heracles,
now believed to be

the Strait of Gibraltar,

which would place it
in the Atlantic Ocean.

Although Plato implies that
Atlantis is in the Atlantic,

many have said that the Great
Greek got the location wrong,

proposing some rather colorful
ideas for where

it's really located.

Think Antarctica,
or even closer to home,

that it was once part of
Florida, specifically Tampa.

Seriously.

One popular theory even places
Atlantis in the Bahamas.

And no, I'm not talking about
some long-lost

five-star resort.

Seekers of the lost city claim
that an unusual underwater

formation known as
the Bimini Road is all

that remains of
an Atlantean thoroughfare.

Several years ago, I had

a chance to investigate it
for myself.

The rectangular blocks stretch
as far as the eye can see,

forming a pathway that looks,
well, designed.

To see what's going on beneath
the mysterious blocks,

we deployed a
sub-bottom profiler,

powerful sonar that can image
30 feet below the ocean floor.

Am I looking at structure
down here?

What is this?

-That's solid seafloor.
-OK.

It's not an anomaly.

The sub bottom profiler
reveals that the Bimini Road is

definitely a natural
rock formation.

Its paving stone appearance may
be the result of ocean currents

wearing away the soft
limestone sediment.

While I didn't manage to find
Atlantis in the Bahamas,

other teams of explorers
continue to search for it

all over the world,
and it's pretty tough sledding.

One theory places Atlantis
in the desert.

This is the Richat structure,

also known as
the Eye of the Sahara.

It sits deep in the deserts of
Mauritania in northwest Africa,

a vast circular formation
nearly 15 miles across.

There's just one problem.

It's actually an ancient
geological structure

and not man-made.

Another idea surfaces when
marine biologists exploring

waters near Hawaii record
strange topography

on the sea floor.

The location looked like
a paved path, leading the team

to nickname it the Yellow
Brick Road to Atlantis.

Later analysis showed it was
a naturally fractured volcanic

rock and not an actual road.

In 2018, there was another
potential discovery.

A team announced they had found
evidence of Atlantis in

the Gulf of Cadiz,
off the coast of Spain,

exactly where Plato hinted
it might be.

Could this be the breakthrough
that finally proves

this legendary city was real?

Several years ago,
breaking news surfaced,

said to offer real evidence
of Atlantis.

A British surveying
and treasure hunting firm,

Merlin Burrows,
announced they had identified

structures they believed to be
part of Atlantis

in the Gulf of Cadiz,

along the coast of Spain's
Iberian Peninsula.

Their claim is based on
satellite images showing

geometric shapes beneath
the surface, straight lines,

rectangular outlines,
and large circular formations

that they believe to be buried
buildings or other structures.

Stel Pavlo co-host of
the Discovery series

"Hunting Atlantis," was
among the first

to investigate their findings.

What made that story really
sort of take off in 2018 is

because they had
satellite images.

They were using the latest
cutting-edge technology,

which had already been used to
find hidden features in Egypt.

It was like, "Aha! At last,
technology is gonna solve this."

This is what
Merlin Burrows does.

They have a track record, so...

when they make a claim like
this, you're certainly gonna

raise an eyebrow and listen.

The Merlin Burrows team
claimed to have found submerged

structures laid out
in concentric circles,

just like Plato's city plan.

But, just like
the Eye of the Sahara,

it would take more
than a few circles

to prove this was
really Atlantis.

Other researchers went out
there to take a look.

The circular features
that they found

turned out to be ponds.

[Josh] Man-made ponds, yes.

But not from 11,000 years ago,
from just 20 years ago,

designed to study plankton.

But there were other
astonishing Atlantis claims

to come.

In 2020, a research team
claimed Ireland once went by

another name, Atlantis.

They pointed to what they saw
as striking parallels with

Plato's account of Atlantis,
arguing that Ireland's

central plain,
ringed by mountains,

mirrors the landscape
he described.

Archaeologists remain
skeptical.

While Stone Age artifacts
have been recovered,

there's no evidence
of the advanced society

Plato described.

And many say research like this
tries a little too hard to make

the legend fit existing maps.

These theories are taking
everything far too literally.

These are people
with real passion,

but they bring their biases
to it.

And instead of just
dispassionately looking at what

there is, they kind of start
filling in the blanks.

If you're gonna go
looking for Atlantis,

you're looking for
broader brushstrokes.

You're not looking for an exact
match to what Plato describes.

[Josh]
Although Stel doesn't believe
there's a lost Atlantis

out there matching
Plato's description,

he does still think there's some
remarkable truth to the story.

In the period that we're
talking about in

the fifth millennium b.C.,

there's what's called
a meltwater pulse.

And what that is is water
coming from glaciers that are

melting from the end of
the Ice Age.

That all rushes out and starts
flooding the coastlines

and starts sinking
certain cities.

It comes rushing in,
and it starts causing

all kinds of chaos.

That pretty much matches
the type of thing that Plato is

talking about.

That catastrophe is
in the record.

It's in the archaeological
and geological record.

So that's a large element that
Plato gets correct.

[Josh] There are indeed multiple
historical occurrences of

nature wiping out
entire civilizations

around Plato's time.

The volcanic eruption of Thera
around 1.600 b.C. unleashes

massive tsunamis that devastate
the Minoan civilization on

nearby Crete.

Centuries later, the Greek city
of Pavlopetri is submerged

by rising seas.

And just a decade before Plato
wrote of Atlantis,

an earthquake and tsunami

destroys the Greek city
of Helike.

It seems highly plausible to
me that there was some ancient

city that was destroyed in
a flood that led to the myth.

It could be that we already
found it and haven't made

the connection, or it could be
something that's still lost.

As much as I'd love to believe
in an advanced civilization

lost beneath the waves,
it is sadly much more likely

that Atlantis is not
a real place.

Atlantis is instead
an allegory, a warning of how

power corrupts.

But what makes the story
remarkable is we can now

confirm that it's a fiction
based on fact.

Multiple ancient civilizations
were lost

in cataclysmic terror,
sunk beneath the waves.

And perhaps that's why the myth
of Atlantis endures.

You can really believe
it happened.

And you know what?
It kind of did.

I'm Josh Gates, and I'll see
you on the next expedition.