I have recently unearthed information about a 400 metre stone-built quay that was discovered submerged around fourty years ago, just under a half a kilometre out from the Algarve shore. Strewn along it´s side were wrecks of fourty boats. The obvious explanation is that all the ships were destroyed in a catastrophic seismic upheaval involving a Tsunami together with the simultaneous plummeting of the seabed. The next year the shifting sands that had revealed the site had again engulfed it and nothing could be seen.

Samples of wood, bronze nails and ceramics were recovered by the sub-aqua club involved and were given to archaeologists who took them to Lisbon. Subsequently, the club heard nothing and there was no official announcement. Strange for such a spectacular discovery.

I suspect the authorities were baffled as my enquiries indicate the ceramics were earlier than Roman, which would have been the most obvious era. They might just have been from Tartessos which would support one of my theories advanced in the book, that this enigmatic kingdom was not just the small area around Cadiz, Huelva and Seville, but occupied the remnant of Atlantis all the way from Cadiz to the south west tip of the Algarve. One of the famous quotes about it in the Old Testament, from Isaiah 23:1, is, “Howl, ye ships of Tarshish for it is laid waste, so there is no house, no entering in.” It is broadly accepted that Tarshish and Tartessos are synonymous. This “laying waste” has been thought to refer to destruction by another power, but if my theory is correct it would more likely have been from a disastrous seismic event.

I doubt if any wrecks could have survived from the Atlantis era even if they had been buried in sand and mud. Nevertheless, it does add weight to my theory that is central to the book, that civilisations could have been destroyed in this region by successive, huge, catastrophic events.