CADIZ, Spain, June 7 (UPI) -- A German scientist says a satellite image off Spain's southern coast shows what could be the remains of the lost city of Atlantis, the BBC reported Monday.
Dr. Rainer Kuehne thinks the "island" of Atlantis actually referred to a region of the southern Spanish coast destroyed by a flood between 800 BC and 500 BC.
Satellite photos of a salt marsh region known as Marisma de Hinojos near the city of Cadiz show two rectangular structures in the mud and parts of concentric rings that may once have surrounded them.
"Plato wrote of an island of five stades (1,000 yards) diameter that was surrounded by several circular structures -- concentric rings -- some consisting of Earth and the others of water. We have in the photos concentric rings just as Plato described," Kuehne said.
Kuehne said he hoped to attract interest from archaeologists to excavate the site, although it is bound to run into opposition, as the features in the satellite photo are located within Spain's Donana national park.
The research was reported as an ongoing project in the online edition of the journal, "Antiquity."
