Shells and crockery uncovered the mystery of Atlantis

legend of the mysterious Atlantis, which is suddenly swallowed by the sea, apparently, not an artistic exaggeration.

The new findings on the island of Crete indicate that an ancient civilization has been about the same impact of elements which already

The Legend of Atlantis - a mysterious country, which is swallowed by the sea, may be more than just a myth today killed a quarter of a million people.

The loss of highly Cretan civilization nearly 3, 5 thousand. Years ago, has long been a mystery. The ancient Minoans were skilled architects, shipbuilders, their achievements have left their mark on the culture and life of many ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean, including the Egyptian. Skilled shipbuilders, they traded with many Mediterranean cities, and not by chance in the Egyptian papyri referred to as "the people from the sea».

Surprisingly, however, this civilization died. Now scientists have found new evidence that the cause of death of the Minoan culture was the raging water element.

On the shore of the island of Crete have found the Minoan building material and pottery mixed with rounded pebbles and shells and other representatives of microscopic marine fauna. Scientists believe that this mixture could only create a tsunami.

Since the main occupation of the Minoans were navigation and trade, most of the cities were built on the coast - it was the cause of the decline of ancient civilization. The sea washed large city and spared only a small village, yutivshiesya inland.

One of the major Minoan settlement was the city of Palaikastro on the eastern tip of the island. Canadian archaeologist Sandy Makdzhilivray conducted archaeological excavations here for 25 years. He found the remains of buildings and many other traces of the once vibrant life.

The city was very large, and some of its regions located at an altitude of 15 meters above sea level. City walls near the sea were washed away, while the buildings are located away from the coast, partly preserved.

Sinolakis Kostas, an expert on tsunami from the University of Southern California came to the conclusion that the wave would be as powerful as the one that devastated the coasts of several countries in South-East Asia in 2004 and killed more than 250 thousand people.

But what caused the tsunami? As shown by radiocarbon analysis, the cause could be an eruption in the middle of the second millennium BC a volcano on the island of Santorini, located seventy kilometers to the north, writes BBC BBC.

In another scientific experiment, which to Pravda.Ru has already mentioned, it was found that the eruption on the island of Santorini was 10 times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.

The myth of Atlantis - a mysterious island state, which plunged into the sea - was first mentioned by Plato more than two thousand years ago. World fame he gained after the publication of the novel by Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Scientists suspect that the death of the Minoan civilization was the cause of the myth.