Robert K. G. Temple (1945- ) is the American bestselling author of The Sirius Mystery^[735]. In it he supports the idea of extraterrestrial influence on human cultural development. He contends that this interaction took place between 5000 and 3000 BC and refers to that era as the Contact Period. He goes further and claims that these ‘visitors’ were responsible for the building of the Sphinx and the pyramids and that later efforts by the Egyptians to build other pyramids on the same scale failed.

Temple  has a degree in Oriental Studies and Sanskrit from the University of Pennsylvania. He has written a number of sometimes controversial books on various historical subjects^(a). However, it was not until his 2010 book, Egyptian Dawn^[736], that he touched on the subject of Atlantis.

He declared that the “true ‘Atlantis’ was the Atlantic Coastal civilisation of the megalith builders.” He further proposes that the story of Atlantis was concocted by those megalith builders “for consumption by the people of the Mediterranean, as a kind of disinformation campaigh.” Temple suggests that he may devote an entire book to the subject of Atlantis sometime in the future.

^(a) http://www.robert-temple.com/