Ali Bey El Abbassi (1766-1818) was one of the assumed names of Domingo Badia y Leblich, a Spanish traveller and thought to be a spy for Joseph Bonaparte. Early in the 19th century he published The Ancient Island of Atlantis[012] an account of his journeys in North Africa and the Middle East. He wrote of the ancient island of Atlantis and the possibility of an interior sea in the centre of Africa. He appears to have been the first to suggest North Africa as the location of Atlantis an idea that then lay dormant for half a century until 1868 when D.A. Godron advocated Morocco as its home.
