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known peoples who had possibly built in a sufficiently durable way would have been the Romans. It is known that the Algarve coastline has been eroded since their era, two thousand years ago. But if this settlement had been Roman, I doubt whether that would account for the current position of the submerged remains in an area famous for itscliffs. If it was on land being inexorably eaten away by the sea, it would have collapsed as the cliff below it avalanched onto the beach. Parts of Roman remains have been discovered on cliff edges, the missing parts having been consigned to the sea long ago. The exact distance from the shore was not disclosed in the old history book, but the evidence would appear to indicate these remains are farther out to sea with subsidence appearing to be the more likely cause—and who knows how large an area was affected? I have just discussed an estimated 30-meter drop over a radius of 300 kilometers as a consequence of the 1755 earthquake, and there were many others of similar or greater intensity before it.
    If here was evidence of one sunken town, it was most unlikely to have existed in isolation in such a fertile area. My excitement barometer rose: cities could be dotted all over the seabed out there. What enlightening surprises could be in store from ruins that have lain unnoticed and forgotten for many thousands of years, finds that might change our whole perception of the world’s history!
    After leaving Jonathan, I visited the harbormaster’s office just along the seafront and purchased a large bathymetric map showing the levels and contours of the seabed in front of the Algarve.
    Arriving home, hardly able to contain my curiosity, I grabbed a Bible and a dictionary, the two heaviest books to hand, to weigh down each end of the map as I unfurled it on the dining table. This was turning out to be quite a day; I was in for my second major surprise. The seabed directly in front of the coast was pretty well flat and extended way out to sea, to a distance varying from 6 to 30 kilometers, with only a gentle slope. It looked like a large plain had been flooded. Interestingly, it finally reached a depth of around 120 meters before plunging sharply to around 200 meters. One possibility was that the original plain had once been fronted by cliffs, much as most of the western end of the Algarve is today. Dotted around this submerged plain were gray spots marked as “rocky areas.” I doubted whether any of these had been examined to determine whether they just might be submerged ruins.
    A second flat area, sloping by roughly the same gradient as the first, continues out for a distance varying from 2 to 6 kilometers. Again this falls over a much steeper drop. There is then a third plain, only gentlyrising and falling in parts, as it is also mostly very flat. It extends from a farther 20 kilometers out in front of Portimão in the western Algarve to 47 in front of Faro in the center, before again culminating in a drop that, like the others, is much steeper in some areas. The most precipitous part is at its extreme distance from the existing shore, where it finishes in what must have been a cape almost due south of Faro. It ends in a much higher area topped by a couple of rock-outcrop mini-peaks, not far below the surface.
    The submerging of one of these plains could be explained by the melting of the glaciers that used to cover much of the northern hemisphere. This happened from around 16,000 B.C. to 11,000 B.C. (estimates vary). As a result of this meltdown, the sea is thought to have risen by around 100 to 120 meters worldwide. The submerging, however, could equally well be a result of sinking during a serious earthquake like that in 1755, or the combined effects of several of them. ( SEE IMAGE 4, NEXT PAGE .)
    The seabed map showed one more fascinating aspect. The bed of the Arade River, beside the mouth of which Jonathan and I had chatted, was clearly shown extending way out under the sea, with its