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Sunken City · Permit dives

Phanagoria, the Russian Atlantis

Founded ~540 BC · part-submerged, Taman Peninsula, Black Sea, Russia
PROTECTED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Phanagoria, the Russian Atlantis: still unexplained.

The capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, a third of it under the bay

The law of this ground: Russian state archaeological site, underwater work by permitted expeditions only.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
The capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, a third of it under the bay
The account

On a peninsula between two seas stood Phanagoria, once the greatest Greek city of the eastern Black Sea and capital of the Bosporan kings. The water has taken a third of it; the rest waits on land. Divers in the bay bring up amphorae, marble, and the foundations of quays, the underwater half of one of the largest archaeological sites in Russia, where the sea and the dig meet at the shoreline.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Taman Peninsula, Black Sea, Russia.
  • What you are chasing is The capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, a third of it under the bay. Work the documented record of Phanagoria, the Russian Atlantis back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Russian state archaeological site, underwater work by permitted expeditions only.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Taman Peninsula, Black Sea, Russia.
  • What you are chasing is The capital of the Bosporan Kingdom, a third of it under the bay. Work the documented record of Phanagoria, the Russian Atlantis back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Russian state archaeological site, underwater work by permitted expeditions only.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Sources and the record

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 45.280°, 36.960° (approx.) View on the Map