The famed lost city of Atlantis may have been found in a rather unlikely place — the Sahara Desert.

e might have been looking in all the wrong places for the location of the lost city of Atlantis since everyone assumes it must be under the ocean somewhere, such as in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea. Instead, it could be found in the African desert; and it’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time.

Richat strucuture: Is this Atlantis, hiding in plain sight in the Sahara? 1 — Illustration of underwater ruins of the lost city of Atlantis based on the legends. © Shutterstock

Some theorists have proposed, the remains of the ringed city Plato spoke of in the fourth century BC can be found in the African country of Mauritania — a strange formation known as the Richat strucuture, or the ‘Eye of the Sahara’, could be the mythical city’s true location.

Richat strucuture: Is this Atlantis, hiding in plain sight in the Sahara? 2 — Satellite image of the Richat Structure, or the Eye of the Sahara. © Aleksandr Koltyrin | Dreamstime.com | Photo 188504928

It is not only the exact size and shape Plato said it was — nearly 127 stadia, or 23.5 km (38 miles) across and circular — but mountains he described to the north can be seen quite clearly on satellite imagery, as can evidence of ancient rivers, which Plato said flowed around the city.

Scientists are yet to figure out exactly what created the Richat structure, saying while it looks like a crater, there’s no evidence of any impact.

Richat strucuture: Is this Atlantis, hiding in plain sight in the Sahara? 3 — First discovered in the 1930s, the Richat Structure was originally thought to have been an impact crater. However, research in the 1950s and 1960s has since eliminated the possibility of it having been made by extraterrestrial impact (a meteor, for example) in favor of terrestrial causes (such as volcanic activity). Eventually, scientists settled for a theory according to which it is a 100-million-year-old dome of molten rock, eroded and shaped by wind and water. © Flickr/Stuart Rankin

Plato said Atlantis was destroyed in a “single day and night of misfortune” and sank beneath the waves. The scientific record does show the Earth underwent significant climate upheaval around 11,500 years ago, when Atlantis is alleged to have disappeared. Theorists also point out satellite imagery that resembles the aftermath of a tsunami unlike anyone alive today would have seen.

Doesn’t the entire region of the Richat Structure look like it was blasted by flowing water or a tsunami?

Most of the mainstream scholars believe the tale of Atlantis was merely that — a fable. In recent decades, a number of places have been singled out as potential sites — including Crete, the Atlantic and even Antarctica. Do you think, the ‘Eye of the Sahara’ could be the mythical lost city of Atlantis?