A dry read, but Luce argues fairly conclusively that Thera (presently known as Santorini), an island in the Aegean Sea, was Plato's Atlantis. About 3,600 years ago, a volcanic eruption more powerful than that of Krakatoa devastated the island, which was an outpost of Minoan civilization; eventually, the entire civilization was destroyed as a result of this cataclysm. On mainland Greece, the memory of the Theran tragedy had been lost by the time Plato's ancestor, Solon, heard a garbled account of it from a group of Egyptian priests. When the story finally reached Plato himself, he added further distortions and embellishments to create the fabulous legend of the sunken continent as we know it today.

The book is a little dull, as I've mentioned, but scientifically and historically quite sound. If you have even a passing interest in Atlantis, you should read it: you'll get a pretty good handle on the subject and learn something about volcanology in the process. ( )