Editing Richat Structure (section)

== Fringe theory of Atlantis site ==
The Richat structure has been the subject of [[Fringe theory|fringe claims]] to be the site of [[Atlantis]] mentioned in the works of [[Plato]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Mark Adams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4hTUCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA203 |title=Meet Me in Atlantis: Across Three Continents in Search of the Legendary Sunken City |date=26 April 2016 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |isbn=978-1-101-98393-5 |page=203}}

{{cite book |author=Rob Shelsky |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rYaVCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |title=Invader Moon |date=23 February 2016 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-61868-666-4 |page=75}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Is this Atlantis, hiding in plain sight in the Sahara? |language=en |work=Newshub |url=https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/09/is-this-atlantis-hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-sahara.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180907043527/https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2018/09/is-this-atlantis-hiding-in-plain-sight-in-the-sahara.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=7 September 2018 |access-date=2023-11-08}}</ref> This claim is primarily based on the concentric nature of the structure, which superficially matches Plato's description of the city.<ref name=":1" /> Most classicists believe that Atlantis was a fictional rhetorical invention by Plato, rather than a real geographic location.<ref>{{cite book |last=Clay |first=Diskin |title=Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy |publisher=E. J. Brill |year=2000 |isbn=978-90-04-11704-4 |editor-last=Cleary |editor-first=John J. |volume=15 |location=Leiden |pages=1–21 |chapter=The Invention of Atlantis: The Anatomy of a Fiction |author-link=Diskin Clay |editor2-last=Gurtler |editor2-first=Gary M. |chapter-url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=AMRl67uqD9wC |page=1}}}}</ref><ref>"As Smith discusses in the opening article in this theme issue, the lost island-continent was – in all likelihood – entirely Plato's invention for the purposes of illustrating arguments around Grecian polity. Archaeologists broadly agree with the view that Atlantis is quite simply 'utopia' (Doumas, 2007), a stance also taken by classical philologists, who interpret Atlantis as a metaphorical rather than an actual place (Broadie, 2013; Gill, 1979; Nesselrath, 2002). One might consider the question as being already reasonably solved but despite the general expert consensus on the matter, countless attempts have been made at finding Atlantis." ([http://shimajournal.org/issues/v10n2/c.-Dawson-Hayward-Introduction-Shima-v10n2.pdf Dawson & Hayward, 2016])</ref> Skeptic [[Steven Novella]] criticised the claim, stating that the structure is inconsistent with Plato's description of Atlantis, and that the site shows no evidence of a city ever being built at the location.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Novella |first=Stephen |date=2018-11-19 |title=No – Atlantis Has Not Been Discovered in North Africa |url=https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/no-atlantis-has-not-been-discovered-in-north-africa/ |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=NeuroLogica}}</ref>