ATLANTIS & the Atlantic Ocean

Plato tells about Atlantis in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias. Atlantis was situated on a large island in the Atlantic Ocean, apparently not very far from Europe. How many islands like this are there? I can find only two: Britain and Ireland. The capital was on the south coast and had a harbour. If Atlantis was in England, than it must have been near Portsmouth or perhaps near Exeter, Poole, Brighton of Hastings. Plato writes in Critias: 'The area as a whole was high and the coast was precipitous, but around the city itself there was a plain (...)' This refers clearly to the famous white cliffs of Dover, the first thing visitors see when they come to England, and to the South-English plain.

Atlantis lay in a fertile plain, surrounded by mountains. That is also correct. The plain is said to measure 370 by 550 km - far too large. But one tenth of that, 37 by 55 km, corresponds approximately with a rectangle between Salisbury and Chichester. The plain was divided into 60,000 (6000?) square fields, probably so-called Celtic fields, although the Celts came much later to England (from 550 BC). The city is said to have been round with a diameter of 24 km (2,4 km). The last number corresponds with the dimensions of the inner city of Amsterdam (without the Plantage quarter). The centre would be about as large as the area around the Dam Square.