IMAGE FROM THE DEEP
Grid pattern found three miles below surface

Underwater remains of what appeared to be man-made structures were revealed last week at a site in the Atlantic, prompting speculation of a lost civilisation. While using the imaging system Google Ocean, Bernie Bamford, from Chester, spotted a grid-like pattern 3½ miles under the Atlantic surface off the west coast of Africa. A large area seemed to be crisscrossed with lines suggesting a settlement. Dr Charles Orser, curator of historical archeology at New York State University, was quoted as saying the discovery warranted further investigation. The coordinates were said to match one of the possible locations of the legendary city of Atlantis, originally described by the Greek philosopher Plato, left.

ORIGIN OF LEGEND
The Atlantis story has persisted for 2,000 years

The legend of Atlantis stems from two of Plato’s dialogues. According to these texts, Plato learnt from Egyptian priests and ancient temple records that Atlantis was a vast island whose downfall came when its people stopped believing in God. The land was said to have been swallowed by the sea in a series of devastating earthquakes in 9700BC. The myth has held a fascination in western culture ever since. In 1870, the French author Jules Verne published Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, in which Captain Nemo, takes his submarine Nautilus to Atlantis. In the 1970s The Man from Atlantis, starring Patrick Duffy, left, was a hit television series. And in 2001 Disney released Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

LOCATION, LOCATION
The city has been ‘found’ all over the world

Some have suggested the story of Atlantis arose from a huge volcanic eruption in 1500BC that destroyed most of the Greek island of Thera, left. In 2004 an American architect claimed he had found Atlantis 5,000ft under the sea between Cyprus and Syria - but nobody agreed with him. Others believe Atlantis did not sink and is in fact a Mediterranean island such as Cyprus or Malta. Yet other attempts to pinpoint the lost city have ranged as far as America and Scandinavia. Bamford’s claim sparked interest, however, because it chimes with Plato, who placed Atlantis beyond the Pillars of Hercules - the ancient name for the Strait of Gibraltar. The site identified by Bamford lies just off the coast of the Canary Islands.

OPTICAL ILLUSIONS
Why the subsea ‘city’ is not what it seemed

Alas, Google swiftly poured icy water on hopes that Atlantis had been found. The shapes in the image, it said, were “an artefact of the data collection process . . . from boats using sonar to take measurements of the seafloor. The lines show the path of the boat as it gathers the data”. It seems that the image was an illusion similar to the “face” seen on Mars. In 1976 Nasa released photographs from the Viking 1 space probe that appeared to show a giant human head on the planet’s surface, left. The “face on Mars” quickly become a cultural icon, spurring theories about life on the red planet. However, images from later expeditions led most people to conclude that the face was, in fact, just a funny-shaped rock.

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