It is said that thousands of years ago a sequential number of cataclysmic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions crushed a chain of mountains that once joined Europe and Africa together (Pillars of Herculis). The ocean water disintegrated the lower land that once existed under the Mediterranean Sea.
By time, the ocean water settled and the Mediterranean Sea was created. Obviously, the higher land survived the floods and several islands were formed. Thus, this new basin which came into being and which separated the two great continents became an arena of warfare and conflicts among the powerful maritime nations.
This great catastrophe separated Malta and Gozo from the mainland and, thus, the Maltese islands were formed. Now, according to Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, another catastrophic eruption occurred and the island of Atlantikos (the mother land) was submerged under the sea in the span of a single day and night.
From ancient times, several scholars have written about the existence of Atlantika but, unfortunately, never found its exact location. For the last two centuries this mysterious island confused hundreds of scientists and researchers through their findings. Evidently, these findings shaped new theories and pinpointed different sites around the world as the possible location of Atlantis. These theories hint at various locations in the Mediterranean Sea, such as Crete, Santorini, Cyprus, Malta, Sahara, Sardinia, the Middle East, Troy, the Canary Islands and Ireland in the Atlantic.
To my surprise I found that some of these theories also identify Atlantis in Central and Southern American countries (Bolivia and Peru) because the ruins of some ancient temples, to a certain extent, bear undeniable resemblance to that of Atlantis. Indonesia in the Pacific Ocean is also a possible site!
Unfortunately these assumptions have confused thousands of enthusiastic readers interested in this controversial subject. In Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias we find a clear description of what remained of Atlantika. It describes the remains of this once great city as the skeleton of a body due to its scattered remains on a number of small islands. Note that it only indicates a group of islands and not a part of a continent!
Everyone agrees that when Plato, together with Krantor, visited the temple of Neith at Sais, in Egypt, and saw the story of Atlantika engraved on the temple columns he located these remains in the western ocean (what is now referred to as the Mediterranean Sea). His visit to Egypt reaffirmed that Solon's (Athenian statesman and lawgiver) manuscript Atlantikos, written some 200 years before, was a historical fact and not a myth.
It is proven that the Greeks were not a seafaring people. If there was any sort of conflict between the Athenians (east forces) and Atlanteans (west forces), which, ultimately, according to the Egyptian high priest Psonchis in Solon's manuscript Atlantikos, resulted in a military encounter between them on Atlantika soil, it was eventually followed by a catastrophic disaster that submerged this island under the sea.
Therefore, one can conclude that the island of Atlantis was not distant from Greece as presumed by many theories which identify it with the South American continent.
In 1854, Giorgio Grongnet, the renowned Maltese architect, claimed that the Maltese islands are the remnants of Atlantide. This assertion came after an intense research about this enigmatic island which seemed already a controversial subject at his time. One should add that this theory was brought to the fore again by Maltese authors Anton Mifsud (Echoes Of Ploto Island) and Frances Galea (Malta Fdal Atlantis) and through other interesting articles published on local papers and magazines by various writers.
Fortunately, the theory that the Maltese islands in ancient times formed part of a larger island known as Atlantide is gaining acceptance among world-renowned scholars and researchers on this subject. The fact that on the Maltese islands we find several ancient temples (Il-Ggantija, l-Imnajdra, Hagar Qim) and the Hypogeum at Tarxien, proves that these ancient remains are more than a mere evidence that an advanced technological civilisation settled in Malta about 8,000 years ago.
But more than that, the fact that Malta is not so distant from Greece and that the Maltese islands together with the volcanic islands of Pantalleria and Lampedusa fall exactly into the description given by Plato, shows that these islands are part of the skeleton of the country left floating in the central Mediterranean to bear witness of Atlantis.
There are those who think that if this theory is proved scientifically then Malta can surely be referred to as the cradle of civilisation. At the same time, however, it will be a great challenge to local historians to rewrite and update our prehistory.