# Session 2: Atlantis in the ancient sources, the Green Sahara and the maps

> A review of the Atlantis literature from Herodotus to the Richat claims, the evidence for the Sahara's change from wetland to desert, and the maps of…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/sessions/SES0DCPG24DVVS2/session-2-atlantis-in-the-ancient-sources-the-green-sahara  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

---

[Eye of the Sahara and Atlantis](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara)Research session

Research session · Eye of the Sahara and Atlantis

# Session 2: Atlantis in the ancient sources, the Green Sahara and the maps

A review of the Atlantis literature from Herodotus to the Richat claims, the evidence for the Sahara's change from wetland to desert, and the maps of Atlantis and of the ancient accounts of north-west Africa.

Session **2** 28 Oct 2026Literature review0

## What it concluded

- No ancient writer reviewed here puts Plato's Atlantis in North Africa: those who repeat Plato put it in or under the Atlantic, and the Libyan Atlantes and Atlantians are peoples named after Mount Atlas, Diodorus's from a romance of the second century BC. No map of Atlantis survives from antiquity; the earliest found is Kircher's of 1665, which puts it in the mid-Atlantic. The Richat was wetter within human memory, in the African Humid Period of about 14,800 to 5,500 years ago, and Plato's date falls inside that span; but the dated record shows streams and small lakes, not a sea or a ring lake.

## What it left open

- Whether any lake or marsh deposits lie in the Richat's ring depressions; none has been reported.
- The dates of the arid Younger Dryas interval in the Mauritanian dust record, which the abstract does not give.
- Full readings of Nesselrath 2002, Vidal-Naquet 2005, Borchardt 1927 and Herrmann, cited here through reviews and Atlantipedia; Butavand's date.

## Questions raised 2

[Does any ancient source put Atlantis in North Africa or the Sahara?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/questions/QST0DCP9AWZEYGJ/does-any-ancient-source-put-atlantis-in-north-africa-or-the)

QST

[Was the Richat a lake or wetland within human memory, and if so when?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/questions/QST0DCP9AD347WE/was-the-richat-a-lake-or-wetland-within-human-memory-and-if)

QST

## Answers proposed 6

[No: every ancient writer reviewed here who places Plato's Atlantis puts it in the Atlantic](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/answers/ANS0DCP9PXMGWYE/no-every-ancient-writer-reviewed-here-who-places-platos)

ANS

[None of these.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/answers/ANS0DCP9QRGBC0A/none-of-these)

ANS

[None of these.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/answers/ANS0DCP9HDM56Z8/none-of-these)

ANS

[Wet but not a ringed lake: streams and small lakes in the African Humid Period, about 14,800 to 5,500 years ago](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/answers/ANS0DCP9GQMCS19/wet-but-not-a-ringed-lake-streams-and-small-lakes-in-the)

ANS

[Yes: Diodorus's Atlantians of western Libya, by the ocean and Lake Tritonis, are a North African Atlantis](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/answers/ANS0DCP9Q7XFSV7/yes-diodoruss-atlantians-of-western-libya-by-the-ocean-and)

ANS

[Yes: around Plato's date of about 9600 BC, rivers filled the Richat's rings with water](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/answers/ANS0DCP9H3EWGDD/yes-around-platos-date-of-about-9600-bc-rivers-filled-the)

ANS

## Answers taken up again 1

[Atlantis was Plato's invention; the Richat only shares its ringed shape](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/answers/ANS0DCKSQBMD29D/atlantis-was-platos-invention-the-richat-only-shares-its)

ANS

## Evidence found 21

[Across Africa the humid period lasted about 14,800 to 5,500 years ago and ended earlier in the north](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAENM8CDW/across-africa-the-humid-period-lasted-about-14-800-to-5-500)

EVD

[Aristotle is reported to have said Plato invented Atlantis and then sank it, as Homer did the Achaean wall](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPBNZ8E81T/aristotle-is-reported-to-have-said-plato-invented-atlantis)

EVD

[By the fifth century BC Herodotus knew inner Libya as waterless and rainless](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAGPS20DJ/by-the-fifth-century-bc-herodotus-knew-inner-libya-as)

EVD

[Classical scholarship reads Atlantis as Plato's own fiction, the earliest narrative fiction in Greek](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPBP8XCFN2/classical-scholarship-reads-atlantis-as-platos-own-fiction)

EVD

[Diodorus took the Atlantians from a mythical romance written two centuries after Plato, and does not link them to…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPB95GFA3Y/diodorus-took-the-atlantians-from-a-mythical-romance-written)

EVD

[Diodorus's Atlantians were a civilised people of western Libya by the ocean, near a marsh lost in an earthquake](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPB8VD62Z9/diodoruss-atlantians-were-a-civilised-people-of-western)

EVD

[Every later ancient writer reviewed here who repeats Plato puts Atlantis at sea, in the Atlantic](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPB804S9YE/every-later-ancient-writer-reviewed-here-who-repeats-plato)

EVD

[Herodotus's Atlantes are a Libyan people named after Mount Atlas, with no island and no flood](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPB8KZ8VPY/herodotuss-atlantes-are-a-libyan-people-named-after-mount)

EVD

[In the eastern Sahara the drying was gradual: dust from about 4300 years ago, desert by about 2700](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAG9FVWCG/in-the-eastern-sahara-the-drying-was-gradual-dust-from-about)

EVD

[In wet phases the Sahara's rivers, lakes and inland deltas joined into networks, last active in the early Holocene](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAFVDAH9A/in-wet-phases-the-saharas-rivers-lakes-and-inland-deltas)

EVD

[Leaf waxes off the western Sahara put the Green Sahara at about 11,000 to 5000 years ago, with a likely abrupt end](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAFD077ZY/leaf-waxes-off-the-western-sahara-put-the-green-sahara-at)

EVD

[Off Mauritania, dust fell to a low between about 14,800 and 5,500 years ago, when the Sahara was green with perennial…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAE99WFM7/off-mauritania-dust-fell-to-a-low-between-about-14-800-and-5)

EVD

[One leaf-wax record starts the Green Sahara about 11,000 years ago, after Plato's date](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAY8WFXSX/one-leaf-wax-record-starts-the-green-sahara-about-11-000)

EVD

[Plato presents the story as true history from Egypt, and some ancient readers took it so](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPBPPWJTJB/plato-presents-the-story-as-true-history-from-egypt-and-some)

EVD

[Plato's date falls inside the African Humid Period, and streams were laying down gravels in the Richat across that span](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAXJJMHT3/platos-date-falls-inside-the-african-humid-period-and)

EVD

[Plato's rings were belts of sea joined to the ocean by a channel, not a lake fed by rivers](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAYMQ0ADF/platos-rings-were-belts-of-sea-joined-to-the-ocean-by-a)

EVD

[Proponents tie the catastrophe to the Younger Dryas, which off Mauritania was a dry break in the humid period](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAXZ7QN6Q/proponents-tie-the-catastrophe-to-the-younger-dryas-which)

EVD

[Small diatom lakes stood on a wadi floodplain in the south-east Adrar between 9630 and 7550 radiocarbon years ago](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAEXNC1T8/small-diatom-lakes-stood-on-a-wadi-floodplain-in-the-south)

EVD

[The Sahara has turned green more than 230 times in 8 million years](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPAZ1K8TFA/the-sahara-has-turned-green-more-than-230-times-in-8-million)

EVD

[The ancients disagreed where Lake Tritonis was, and most put it in Tunisia or Libya, far from Mauritania](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPB9NDCM8T/the-ancients-disagreed-where-lake-tritonis-was-and-most-put)

EVD

[Those in antiquity who took the story as history also looked for it in the outer sea](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/eye-of-the-sahara/evidence/EVD0DCPB8BYYC7D/those-in-antiquity-who-took-the-story-as-history-also-looked)

EVD

## Sources consulted 33

[Abrupt onset and termination of the African Humid Period: rapid climate responses to gradual insolation forcing](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1RZVVB6K/abrupt-onset-and-termination-of-the-african-humid-period)

SRC

[Against the Heathen (Adversus Gentes), Book 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP13K2ZV75/against-the-heathen-adversus-gentes-book-1)

SRC

[Albert Herrmann (Atlantipedia tag)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1RHAHXZY/albert-herrmann-atlantipedia-tag)

SRC

[Ancient watercourses and biogeography of the Sahara explain the peopling of the desert](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP24KVQK90/ancient-watercourses-and-biogeography-of-the-sahara-explain)

SRC

[Apology](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP134MDXKX/apology)

SRC

[Atlantida (L'Atlantide)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1N2FE1EH/atlantida-latlantide)

SRC

[Auf dem Wege nach Atlantis](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1MNHV2Q6/auf-dem-wege-nach-atlantis)

SRC

[Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara: The Past 6000 Years](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP22CWH17Z/climate-driven-ecosystem-succession-in-the-sahara-the-past)

SRC

[Crantor and Posidonius on Atlantis](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1B6B5WEK/crantor-and-posidonius-on-atlantis)

SRC

[Dynamics of Green Sahara Periods and Their Role in Hominin Evolution](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP243A0GAS/dynamics-of-green-sahara-periods-and-their-role-in-hominin)

SRC

[Geography, Book 13, chapter 1, section 36](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP0Q9EFDWG/geography-book-13-chapter-1-section-36)

SRC

[Geography, Book 2, chapter 3](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP0PR4B0DR/geography-book-2-chapter-3)

SRC

[Herodotus. The text of Canon Rawlinson's translation, with the notes abridged, vol. 2 (map: The World according to Herodotus)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP282FAFYF/herodotus-the-text-of-canon-rawlinsons-translation-with-the)

SRC

[Histories, Book 4, chapters 178–185](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP0QSXRWFS/histories-book-4-chapters-178185)

SRC

[Le lac Tritonis et les noms anciens du chott el Jérid](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1K9QE1DE/le-lac-tritonis-et-les-noms-anciens-du-chott-el-jerid)

SRC

[Les Atlantes: histoire de l'Atlantis et de l'Atlas primitif, ou Introduction à l'histoire de l'Europe](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1M5K7839/les-atlantes-histoire-de-latlantis-et-de-latlas-primitif-ou)

SRC

[Les formations lacustres à diatomées du Tamiga (extrémité sud-est de l'Adrar de Mauritanie)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP251PRP4M/les-formations-lacustres-a-diatomees-du-tamiga-extremite-sud)

SRC

[Life of Solon](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP117ENKQR/life-of-solon)

SRC

[Mundus subterraneus, in XII libros digestus](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1KN3VNXT/mundus-subterraneus-in-xii-libros-digestus)

SRC

[On the Eternity of the World (De aeternitate mundi)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP11H91DVA/on-the-eternity-of-the-world-de-aeternitate-mundi)

SRC

[Paul Borchardt (Atlantipedia tag)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1NC4ZNKC/paul-borchardt-atlantipedia-tag)

SRC

[Plato's Atlantis Story and the Birth of Fiction](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1BWFVHCB/platos-atlantis-story-and-the-birth-of-fiction)

SRC

[Rainfall regimes of the Green Sahara](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP230Y0AGZ/rainfall-regimes-of-the-green-sahara)

SRC

[Review: H.-G. Nesselrath, Platon und die Erfindung von Atlantis (Lectio Teubneriana 11, 2002)](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1CN2CR03/review-h-g-nesselrath-platon-und-die-erfindung-von-atlantis)

SRC

[Review: The Atlantis Story: A Short History of Plato's Myth, by Pierre Vidal-Naquet](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1CAKE0J9/review-the-atlantis-story-a-short-history-of-platos-myth-by)

SRC

[Roman History (Res Gestae), Book 17](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1ASZT6JP/roman-history-res-gestae-book-17)

SRC

[The Commentaries of Proclus on the Timaeus of Plato, vol. 1](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP12PAMMDG/the-commentaries-of-proclus-on-the-timaeus-of-plato-vol-1)

SRC

[The Genre of the Atlantis Story](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1BGW2Z09/the-genre-of-the-atlantis-story)

SRC

[The Library of History, Book 3, chapters 49–61](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP0R8ZAVTC/the-library-of-history-book-3-chapters-4961)

SRC

[The Natural History, Book 2, chapter 92: Lands which have been totally changed into seas](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP0RJZ2P3D/the-natural-history-book-2-chapter-92-lands-which-have-been)

SRC

[The Natural History, Book 5, chapter 1: The two Mauritanias](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP0SCR7WGF/the-natural-history-book-5-chapter-1-the-two-mauritanias)

SRC

[The time-transgressive termination of the African Humid Period](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP23MN2E0M/the-time-transgressive-termination-of-the-african-humid)

SRC

[Various History, Book 3](https://mysteriesdept.com/sources/SRC0DCP1260MMS1/various-history-book-3)

SRC

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Session 2: Atlantis in the ancient sources, the Green Sahara and the maps [Research session SES0DCPG24DVVS2]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/SES0DCPG24DVVS2
```

Key

**SES** 0DCPG24DVVS2

Kind

Research session

Number

2

Date

28 Oct 2026

Version

2

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[apollo](https://mysteriesdept.com/u/apollo)

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