It can be inferred straight from the text.
In Plato's Timaeus, the Egyptian priest with whom Solon speaks says:
"When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the
survivors in your country [Greece] are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains,
but those
who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this
land [Egypt],
neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields,
having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions
preserved
here are the most ancient." (emphasis mine)
A place where water has a "tendency to come up from below" [Egypt] is, translated into modern
scientific terminology,
situated above sea level. Contrariwise, a place where "the water comes down from
above on the fields," [Greece]
translated into scientific terminology, is situated below sea level. The Egyptian
priest is talking about the
sea level concept but not using the word (or it wasn't translated by Plato into that term).
But that's what he is
talking about!
The Egyptian priest is basically saying, "your [Greek] ancestors lived below sea level so
when those below sea level
areas became flooded by the world ocean, most of them perished, leaving only a few
survivors, while we [Egypt] always
lived above sea level and hence even when the ocean rose, it receded once more. The "sea
level concept" is what is
being discussed here.
Later on in the same text, the Egyptian priest continues:
Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters
and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from
heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are
destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children,
and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves.
The phrase "stream from heaven" has often been either glossed over or misinterpreted, in my
view. Where it has
been noted,
it is identified as something akin to a flash flood from a mountain stream/river overflowing
its banks after a great rainfall. This is
a plausible interpretation. However, this explanation never made sense to me. River floods
of this type don't traditionally inflict
so much destruction as to set back civilization itself - at least not in the historical
period of Greece as far as we know it.
Therefore, I reasoned that it must have been referring to a class of floods in which the
"stream" that forms the flood originates
from the ocean sea itself. That is, these are another description of the "ocean floods that
engulf below sea level basins (BSLBs)."
But this is all...hypothetical is it not? Is there any evidence that there were below sea
level lands
in Greece during the last 15,000 years? In fact, there is indisputable evidence that
at least
once such land must have existed, namely the Gulf of Corinth. (more on this later)
Also but this is ...about Greece. What about Atlantis? Here's another quote, also in the
Timaeus that tells of the destruction of Greece and Atlantis following a war that they fought.
"But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day
and night of misfortune all your [Greek] warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island
of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in
those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and
this was caused by the subsidence of the island."
"In like manner" is the key phrase. Plato (through the Egyptian priest) doesn't really say outright that Atlantis was a below sea level Basin
but he pretty much says that Ancient Greece (parts of it) was. And because they were destroyed "in like manner,"
I concluded that this must have been because of their shared geography. Why was Egypt spared in this? The priest
earlier says "because Egypt always built its cities above sea level and Greece didn't." This last quote then says "
Atlantis and Greece were destroyed in 'like manner.'" The natural inference is that "Atlantis also built its cities below sea level.
Plus, in Plato's Critias, it is said that the central plain of Atlantis was surrounded by mountains all around that were
of great height. A plain surrounded by mountains is...a basin. So that direct description of Atlantis already explicitly establishes
that it's a basin. I take it one step further and say, it's a below sea level basin (from the evidence in the text presented).
