The Azores 'pyramid'
In 2013 the amateur sailor Diocleciano Silva announced that his sonar had found a 60 m-tall pyramid with an 8,000 m² base between the islands of São Miguel and Terceira, and suggested it was a relic of Atlantis.
2013 CE · 38.23, -26.63 · status: claim
The account
Silva said it was perfectly shaped and oriented to the cardinal points. Portuguese press reported in 2014 that the Navy's Hydrographic Institute was examining the data, and the story spread worldwide. The University of the Azores and Navy specialists were reported to doubt it, pointing to the volcanic seamounts of the area. No survey has confirmed any artificial structure. The pin is representative.
The sceptical view
The Azores sit on a volcanic ridge full of cones and seamounts; low-resolution sonar easily turns a volcanic hill into a 'pyramid'.
Connections in the atlas
- Spartel Bank as Atlantis
- Donnelly's Atlantis on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
- The 'pyramids' of Rock Lake
- Plato places Atlantis beyond the Pillars of Hercules