BBC Drama

Atlantis End of a World Birth of a Legend (2011x6)

Air date: May 08, 2011

Featuring spectacular visual effects, this factually-based drama tells the gripping story of the greatest natural disaster to shake the ancient world, a disaster that triggered the downfall of a civilisation and spawned a legend. Around 1620 BC, a gigantic volcano in the Aegean Sea stirred from its nineteen-thousand year slumber. The eruption tore the island of Thera apart, producing massive tsunamis that flooded the nearby island of Crete, the centre of Europe's first great civilisation - the Minoans. This apocalyptic event, many experts now believe, led to the eventual downfall of the Minoans, and provided the inspiration for Plato when he later wrote about the people of a mighty island, Atlantis, which sank beneath the waves and was lost forever, 'in a single day and a night of misfortune'. Based on the work of leading scientists, archaeologists and historians, this film immerses viewers in the exotic world of the Minoans.