For thousands of years experts and people have pondered upon the existence of the city of Atlantis. Here's another theory suggesting that thousands of years ago the Antarctic may have been home to an ancient and mysterious civilisation(possibly the Atlantis).

The Theory of Crustal Displacement

So it all started with the theory of "Crustal Displacement, put forward by an American History expert, Professor Charles A. Hapgood. According to this theory, Earth's entire crust shifts every 20,000 to 30,000 years, on this basis it is believed that some 12,000 years ago, Northern coast of Antarctica was ice-free and inhabitable by humans.This would allow Atlanteans, a race of half-human, half-divine people spoken of in Plato's writings, to thrive until the time of the last Ice Age.

Piri Reis Map

The map of Piri Reis world map, drawn 500 years ago reconciles this theory with evidence. Piri Reis is one of the most accurate cartographic records. It was drawn up in 1513 and was based on older sources. It is so precise that it includes drawings of Antarctica's northern ridge 300 years before the continent was discovered officially in 1821 by the europeans. But without any satellite technology, how did the cartographers know about it in such details, if no one has set foot there until the 19th century? This indicates clearly that whoever had the technology and ability to survey the continent of Antarctica must have done so thousands of years ago before the continent was frozen. This is where Hapgood's theory play a part, he claims that Antarctica was home to an ancient civilisation, whose citizens fled or perished when the natural disasters hit the are and transformed it into the dangerous icy terrain as seen today. So do the remains of the city still exists under ice?

Albert Einstein wrote the foreword to Hapgood's 1958 book, The Earth's shifting Crust. Einstein was convinced that the project was worth pursuing and even petitioned the American president, Eisenhower for government funds. Unfortunately, Eisenhower left the office before anything could be agreed upon.

Fingerprints of the Gods

In 1995, Graham Hancock published a study, Fingerprints of the Gods, claiming that crustal displacement in 10,450 BC had destroyed an advanced, ancient civilisation, the remains of which now lie beneath Antarctica. The descendants of said civilisation went on to build the Aztec, Mayan and Egyptian empires.This sounds true when compared to Native American mythology, which traces their ancestors back to, Aztlán, ' a white island in the south' which was destroyed by natural disaster.

Hancock suggests that in 10,450 BC, a major pole shift took place, before which Antarctica lay farther from the South Pole than today, and after which it shifted to its present location. The pole-shift hypothesis connects with the Charles Hapgood's theory of Earth Crustal Displacement. Hapgood had a fascination with the story of Atlantis and suggested that crustal displacement may have caused its destruction. His theories have few supporters in the geological community compared to the more widely accepted model of plate tectonics, but they were adopted by Rose and Rand Flem-Ath's When the Sky Fell: in Search of Atlantis (1995/2009), in which they expand the evidence for Charles Hapgood's theory of earth-crust displacement and propose Antarctica as the site of Atlantis.

This theory isn't as far-fetched as it appears. In 2012, reports surfaced that satellite imaging had identified a 14 mile structure beneath Antarctica. However, NASA and US military rejected the claims. If true, this would be 12 thousand years old, making it the oldest civilisation of the planet earth.

Did you know? The 2009, Roland Emmerich, blockbuster disaster movie 2012 is inspired by Fingerprints of the Gods and the crustal displacement theory.

Rejection of the Theory

While this is undeniably captivating, scientists dispute the theory of crustal displacement stating that, in effect, the Earth's crust would have to move at 1,000 mph for the timings to add up, thus wiping out flora, fauna – and humanity itself.

Scientists such as Professor Peter Barrett have spent years researching on Antarctica have said that the Antartica has been covered in ice for at least 15 million years. Modern researchers such as Keith Matthews also point out errors in the Piri Reis map, suggesting that the names on the map of Antarctica such as "Porto De San Julien" , strongly suggests that it is Argentina. It is a perfect fit when the map is turned 90 degrees.

The idea that Antarctica is home of the legendary Atlantis has weak contentions but Atlantis may not even have existed at all. Few scientists think it was real so why are people fascinated with the lost city of Atlantis? James Romm, from Bard College in Annandale, New York, has provided an explanation.

"It's a story that captures the imagination," Romm said. "It's a great myth. It has a lot of elements that people love to fantasize about."

2017 NASA Satellite Discoveries

As the ice sheets of Antarctica continue to melt, experts believe that the lessening snow is revealing a mysterious truth about the South Pole. Satellite images from NASA show a possible human settlement some 2.3 kilometres beneath the icy surface.

The intriguing discovery was made during aircraft tests trials of NASA's Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) lidar technology set to be launched on the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) in 2017, that aims to monitor changes in polar ice.

"There's very little margin for error when it comes to individual photons hitting on individual fiber optics, that is why we were so surprised when we noticed these abnormal features on the lidar imagery," explains Nathan Borrowitz.

The images seem to show strange markings in the snow which look manufactured, and as though structures used to stand there.

Archeologist, Ashoka Tripathi, of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Calcutta believes the images are evidence of an ancient human settlement. 

"These are clearly features of some sort of human-made structure, resembling some sort of pyramidal structure. The patterns clearly show nothing we should expect from natural geomorphological formations found in nature. We clearly have here evidence of human engineering.The only problem is that these photographs were taken in Antarctica under 2 kilometres of ice. That is clearly the puzzling part, we do not have any explanation for this at the moment." He said.

Historian and cartographer at the University of Cambridge, Christopher Adam, believes there might be a rational explanation.

"One of history's most puzzling maps is that of the Turkish admiral Piri Reis in 1513 AD which successfully mapped the coastline of Antarctica over 500 years ago. What is most fascinating about this map is that it shows the coastline of Antarctica without any ice. How is this possible when images of the subglacial coastline of Antarctica were only seen for the first time after the development of ground-penetrating radar in 1958? Is it possible Antarctica has not always been covered under such an ice sheet? This could be evidence that it is a possibility" he acknowledges.

"A slight pole shift or displacement of the axis of rotation of the Earth in historical times is possibly the only rational explanation that comes to mind but we definitely need more research done before we jump to any conclusion."

Possibilities

Apart from all the facts and scientific statements discarding the idea and the theory, we wonder what is the unknown super structure lying beneath the ice caps shown in the reports of 2012 and 2017? Also if Einstein was interested to pursue this theory, are we missing something by simply rejecting the idea and the possibilities?