Homer wasn't the only Greek with stories of lost cities. In 360 B.C., Plato wrote about Atlantis. The philosopher wrote that, although Atlantis had conquered many lands, it was brought to ruin in a single day and night.
No one has ever proven if Atlantis ever existed or to which ancient civilization it referred. One of the top contenders is the Minoan civilization on Crete, which was destroyed in a single cataclysmic day. The Minoans, named for their king Minos, held sway over trade in the Mediterranean during the Bronze Age. But in the second millennium B.C. a volcano on the nearby island of Santorini unleashed one of the largest eruption in human history. Earthquakes and tidal waves leveled the Minoan capital of Knossos and deluged the island's farmland.
The Minoans never recovered but their memory persisted in the region. The Romans remembered the island as the home of Minos and minted coins on the island depicting the Minotaur, the mythological bull-headed man who stalked Theseus in Minos' labyrinth.
By modern times, the civilization itself had been lost in the labyrinth of time until Arthur Evans, an English journalist and scholar, appeared on the scene in the early 1900's . Before he could start digging, Evans had to help bring about peace between Crete's Muslim and Christian populations as the island struggled for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Evans used his power as a journalist to decry the massacres each side perpetrated and to influence the British Empire to step in and enforce order.
Once the bloodshed had ended, Evans' workers uncovered an elaborate network of workrooms, living quarters, storerooms, and administrative centers. The sprawling complex was adorned with brightly colored frescoes. The British School at Athens offers a virtual tour of the site.
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