We don't know. The only sources for the story are Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, for all we know the story of Atlantis is a completely fictitious product.

That said, any of the following historical catastrophes may have been an inspiration for Atlantis:

• Minoan eruption

  Thera (partially) sunk as a result of the eruption, which also produced a tsunami that devastated Minoan Crete and reached as far as Egypt.

• Helike

  The city was completely submerged by an earthquake or its subsequent tsunami in 373 BC.

• Pavlopetri

  The city was completely submerged by an earthquake sometime around 1000 BC.

We don't know. The only sources for the story are Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, for all we know the story of Atlantis is a completely fictitious product.

That said, any of the following historical catastrophes may have been an inspiration for Atlantis:

• Minoan eruption

  Thera (partially) sunk as a result of the eruption, which also produced a tsunami that devastated Minoan Crete and reached as far as Egypt.

• Helike

  The city was completely submerged by an earthquake or its subsequent tsunami in 373 BC, about a decade before Plato wrote Timaeus and Critias.

• Pavlopetri

  The city was completely submerged by an earthquake sometime around 1000 BC.

Any of the following catastrophes may have been an inspiration for Atlantis:

• Thera (partially) sunk as a result of the Minoan eruption. The eruption also produced a tsunami, that devastated Minoan Crete and reached as far as Egypt.
• Helike was completely submerged by a tsunami in 373 BC.
• Pavlopetri, submerged sometime around 1200 BC.

The truth is, however, that we don't know. Since our only sources for the story are Timaeus and Critias, Atlantis could very well be a completely fictitious product.

We don't know. The only sources for the story are Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, for all we know the story of Atlantis is a completely fictitious product.

That said, any of the following historical catastrophes may have been an inspiration for Atlantis:

• Minoan eruption

  Thera (partially) sunk as a result of the eruption, which also produced a tsunami that devastated Minoan Crete and reached as far as Egypt.

• Helike

  The city was completely submerged by an earthquake or its subsequent tsunami in 373 BC.

• Pavlopetri

  The city was completely submerged by an earthquake sometime around 1000 BC.