According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying “in front of the Pillars of Hercules.” The city-state conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC.

After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean “in a single day and night of misfortune.”

The Atlantis of legend is intriguing.  Today’s reality is more pedestrian, if no more fantastical: It’s become a pair of over-the-top resorts, one in the Bahamas, the other in Dubai.

There are more pictures of Atlantis here.