Bear my ignorance, but I have always wondered about the Atlantis myth. The idea of a lost civilization rumoured to be ahead of its time, and disappearing tragically captured my mind and imagination since childhood.   
 
And now, after much thought, crazy theories and more sensible ones, I found today, on a documentary in Discovery, one that I can accept without much doubt. 
 
Plato's narrative could had been inspired in the Minoan tragedy that occurred when a volcanic eruption sweep the Mediterranean island of Thera, in the 15th century BC. It is thought to have been a monumental disaster, that not only affected the nearby locations, but travelled the world, spelling disaster. The event sunk most of the island, now called Santorini, and was responsible for massive earthquakes, and ashes throughout the world. To have an idea of the gravity of the situation, in American trees, dating from that specific time, was found volcanic dust. There were also found particles in the ice from Antarctica.  
 
This is said to have severely affected the Minoan civilization, as it was a very advanced and artistic society heavily supported by its favourable location in the see, and send it into a decline. Eventually, not many years afterwards, they were invaded and conquered by the Mycenaeans, and their culture crumbled.  
 
So things like these