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Ancient flooded ruins off the Spanish coast are the lost city of Atlantis, a UK team of satellite historians claim.
Antiquity specialists Merlin Burrows believe the ruins of the legendary civilization can be found below the wetland's of Doñana National Park.
Atlantis was recorded in the writings of Greek philosopher Plato who lived around 400BC.
He described an advanced island civilization that ruled a vast maritime empire, some 9,000 years before his own era.
The city was described as having, among other features, an enormous harbour wall, huge entrance pillars, a temple to the god Poseidon and massive circular pieces of land carved out by the Atlanteans to live on.
The location, the researchers claim, is somewhere north of the city of Cadiz, Andalucía, centred around the Doñana National Park, in what they believe was once a vast inland sea.
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Doñana National Park has long been suspected as a possible location, with the marshland that floods six months of every year believed to hide the once proud city.
It is thought a cataclysmic natural disaster, such as a tsunami or volcanic event, wiped out the Atlanteans.
Using satellites, aerial photography and ground observations, the team believe they have found all the features of Atlantis Plato described.
Research leader Tim Akers said not only had they discovered Atlantis but also found the people were incredibly advanced, perhaps having huge implications for how we view ancient history.
He said laboratory analysis of material recovered from Spain showed evidence of a new type of cement, as well as ancient advanced metallurgy.
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Akers claimed to have even found a green patina on the ruins, which match Plato's description, and provided it to a lab in Italy for analysis.
The team also claim ruins on the beaches around the area are from the Atlantians, but ancient Greeks and Romans also lived in the area.
Aerial images of the site reveal what could have been a harbour wall – an incredible 75-metres thick.
The researchers say Plato wrote that this wall was ’50 stadia long’ which would make it around five-and-a-half miles in length.
“Investigations in Doñana lead to the conclusion that there have been two natural disasters (tsunamis) that caused the islands and dry areas to sink, one of which happened around 1500 BC and the other 200AD. There is also evidence of a tsunami event in the Bible.”
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Merlin Burrows have now recorded a documentary film - ‘Atlantica’ - about the discovery.
In the film the team visit sites they believe still show clues of the legendary city.
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Akers said: “Plato describes the location exactly and all we did was follow in his footsteps the way ancient seafarers would have travelled to the cities.
“The site has both Tartessian, Greek, Phoenician, and Roman additions and our scans show multiple occupations over time till there final and ultimate destruction.
Documentary filmmaker Michael Donnellan, who has studied classical Greek and Minoan archeology, said tests at the Modena Materials Analysis Laboratory in Italy on material taken from the site had revealed amazing results.
“The harbour wall seems to have had a coating that prevented barnacle growth, like modern Teflon.
Giacomo Falanga, from the Modena Centro Prove, a chemical testing laboratory in Italy, said samples from the site included a variety of material.
He said: “These structures contain binders, like calcite. The presence of mica, potassium, and other trace minerals show proof of artificial mixing of materials, so the samples we have tested are made from an ancient, prehistoric concrete.”
Andrea Carpi, a material engineer, said: “We can confirm with certainty that the samples analysed were the creation of an ancient civilization with advanced construction methods, which makes me believe that we’re talking about a civilization with very advanced technology.”
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