Since the time of Plato, the fabled land of Atlantis has fired the imagination of those who sought to discover if this "lost continent" belonged to myth or history. Did it exist and, if so, where? What was the cause of its disappearance? Here is the full, first-hand account by the man that led the scientific expedition that found Atlantis and revealed the cause of its destruction--the greatest single natural disaster witnessed and recorded by humankind, a cataclysm so great that it left its indelible impact on the myths and legends of numerous cultures.Mavor's expeditions, drawing on ancient records and myth, verify Plato's recounting of lost Atlantis as well as the controversial theory of Greek seismologist Dr. Angelos Galanopoulus that the Minoan culture on the volcanic Aegean island of Thera was actually the Atlantis of ancient times. Mavor's discovery of Atlantis inspired still ongoing research into catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions and floods. In his epilogue Mavor considers this research and the light it can shed on natural disasters and their possible origins in the wake of comets and asteroids passing the earth.Demystifying the legend of Atlantis, Mavor deftly brings into the realm of objective analysis a phenomenon that has for centuries been a parable for the evolution of human consciousness.