Pavlopetri - and the lost sunken city with no name...

Was the secrets of a lost sunken southern Greek city the inspiration for the fabled "Atlantis"? An interesting thought I would suggest.

Exploration by an Anglo-Greek archaelogical and marine geological team, known as PAVLOPETRI, has revealed a sunken settlement dating back 5000 years to the period of Mycenaean society and Homer's heroes. In terms of size and wealth of detail, it is unprecedented, experts maintain.

The site, straddling some 30,000 square meters of ocean floor off southern Laconia, is believed to have been consumed by the sea around 10,000 BC.

Due to shifting sends and the settlements enclosure in a protected bay, the team's exploration has revealed a world of buildings, courtyards, main streets, rock cut tombs and religious structures - everything we would imagine Atlantis could be. The seabed was replete with thousands of shards of broken pottery from the stoneage, suggesting the settlement was occupied at least 1200 years earlier than originally thought.

Marine geologists have not yet discovered why the settlement sunk. Many theories abound - sea level changes, earthquakes, or even tsunamis.

It is the first time a sunken city has been discovered in Greece that predates the time that Plato penned his allegorical tale of Atlantis, the sunken city.

Read more about the sunken city here