Explorers are reportedly claiming to have found the lost and fabled city of Atlantis – somewhere off the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

According to reports in many of today’s newspapers, an American team has found an archaeological site in the sea between Cyprus and the north coast of Africa, about a mile below sea level.

The team’s leader Robert Sarmast is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying that the entire Mediterranean Sea was flooded just 11,000 years ago when the Atlantic Ocean broke through what he described as “the Gibraltar dam”.

He has researched the mystery for 10 years and says that the site he had discovered is an exact match for the Greek philosopher Plato's descriptions of the legendary city.

Sarmast is quoted as saying: “With modern technology we can now see the geography of the sea floor in a way that has not previously been thought possible. Out new maps show a sunken land mass – a rectangular plain just as Plato described – joining the southern coast of Cyprus to Syria.”

He added: “Throughout the years I realised that the legend of Atlantis must have been at least partly based on factual events in order for it to leave such an underlying impression on humanity.”

The Cyprus Tourist Office has now reportedly committed funds to further exploration of the area. How Plato, who lived some 8,500 years after the city was supposedly inundated, knew so much, is not explained.