Albert Spyro Nikas is a computer scientist working in New York. He is the latest to weigh in behind the idea of Atlantis having been located in the vicinity of Malta. In a paper^(a) prepared for the 2008 Atlantis Conference in Athens, Nikas outlines his ideas. He emphasises that the Atlantis story had an Egyptian orientation which was facing north. Applying his fluency in ancient Greek, he concludes that the Egyptian priests were referring to a number of different seas contained within the Mediterranean. One of these was situated beyond the Pillars of Heracles, which he believes were located on the Egadi Islands^(b) off the west coast of Sicily. He concludes with the claim that the Maltese archipelago is the remains of Atlantis. His paper is well worth a read.

Nikas has claimed that the name Atlas in Greek could be read as Malta in Etruscan, this upset the excitable Diaz-Montexano who denounced it^(c). Nikas responded in defence of his claim^(d).

^(a) http://atlantisinmalta.art.officelive.com/Documents/ATLANTIS.pdf 

^(b) http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,20615.0.html

^(c) http://www.allempires.com/Forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=17819&PID=377931 (29/06/07)

^(d) http://atlantisonline.smfforfree2.com/index.php/topic,24064.0.html