Thera Ancient City Greece

84 year-old detective takles crime on the high seas

William Doonan new novel by mystery, Grave Mediterranean, explores the crime on the high seas and established a brave and original protagonist. Henry Grave is an investigator of the Association of operators of cruise ships. A World War II POW, Henry is as cunning as he is charming, and 84 years, it fits perfectly with his traveling companions. The cruising yacht Vesper is anchored off the Greek island of Thera in the caldera of an ancient volcano, when Henry came on board. Egypt was a federal agent on board to guard a precious cup of Minoan, but the agent was murdered and the cup, fly.With the help of a soap opera star of Nicaragua, a New Age spiritualist, and a store pickpocket, Henry relies on the skills honed in a Nazi camp to hunt down a killer who may have their reasons for taking this cruise in particular, reasons unrelated to the sumptuous meals, onboard activities enjoyable, exciting ports of call.

Doonan is a college professor at Sacramento City College who spends his summers lectures on board ship.

12 million people take cruises each year.

Atlantis and Thera: The Theory that Thera was the Lost City of ...

We've all heard stories about the "Lost City of Atlantis", sunken into the ocean thousands of years ago. This intellectually and technologically advanced civilization , with its electricity and sophisticated plumbing systems, was far ahead of any other ancient culture thriving during its time. Then, like a flash, it was gone, sunken at the bottom of some ocean in a catastrophic event.

Like any great myth or legend, the question always exists: did Atlantis exist? And if so, where was it and who were they? And why is it relevant to ancient history?

One very plausible theory is that the city of Atlantis was in fact the mysterious Minoan civilization, destroyed some 3,000 years ago in a devastating volcanic eruption that had effects reaching as far as the Orient.

The island of Thera , or modern Santorini, was part of the Minoan Empire during the Bronze Age of ancient history. Located in the Aegean Sea, the island has become the best known and one of the most visited of the Minoan sites. The theory that this group of islands could have once been the "Atlantis", is very tempting, and not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Some of the strongest arguments in favor of the Thera theory of Atlantis come from two dialogues written by Greek philosopher Plato . His works Timaeus , written around the 350's B.C., used the debates and conversations of characters to discuss and reveal the thinker's own thoughts and discoveries about the ancient civilization. The main character, Solon, had traveled to Egypt, where he had learned of Atlantis from priests. In Plato's works, we learn of the city's great advances, as well as its great apocalyptic demise. Plato very much believed that the civilization of Atlantis existed. But some feel that he made the whole story up.