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Is there really a lost city of Atlantis? Since Plato first wrote about this mysterious place more than two thousand years ago, people have fruitlessly searched for traces of the legendary civilization. Now Gavin Menzies uncovers the truth, making the startling claim that Atlantis was actually a Minoan civilization based in Crete, and that its people ruled a vast empire based in the Mediterranean that was violently destroyed in 1500 BCE.

Menzies, the best-selling author of 1421: The Year the Chinese Discovered America draws on ancient shipbuilding and navigation techniques, metallurgy and DNA evidence to reveal a trading empire that reached from the Great Lakes to India. He uncovers the mining operation the Minoans operated in North America, three thousand years before Columbus "discovered" the continent. And he details the cataclysmic event that destroyed this powerful civilization. The Lost Empire of Atlantis is an authoritative and compelling exploration of one of the world's great mysteries.

Gavin Menzies is the best-selling author of 1421: The Year China Discovered America and 1434: The Year China Ignited the Renaissance. Born in England, he served in the Royal Navy between 1953 and 1970. His knowledge of seafaring and navigation sparked his interest in the epic voyages of Chinese Admiral Zhang He, which he described in 1421 and 1434.

--New York Times Magazine