The continents of planet Earth are just islands in the endless ocean. Once upon a time, land conquered territory from the sea. The sea takes revenge from time to time, and then entire cities go under the water, centuries are stored in "time capsules", so that later they become the property of underwater archaeologists and divers.
So, for example, Heraklion was discovered. A few days ago, a message appeared on the Internet about a Scythian city found at the bottom of Issyk-Kul, two kilometers from the coast. He disappeared under water due to a natural cataclysm.
But in the XX century, mankind learned to create man-made seas that flood vast territories with cities, villages, fertile lands. Such a sad fate befell the Russian city of Mologa, buried under the waters of the Rybinsk Reservoir. His brother in misfortune became the ancient Chinese city of Shi Chen, whose secrets are kept by the waters of Lake Qingdao.
Thousand Island Lake
In 1959, the Chinese government decided to build a hydroelectric power station and a reservoir on the Xin'an River in Zhejiang Province for the needs of the large city of Hangzhou. As a result, on an area of 573 square kilometers, a man-made sea was formed - the most beautiful lake Qingdao, which in translation from Chinese means "Lake of a Thousand Islands".
In fact, there are even more islands: large - 1078, and small - several thousand. 80% of their territory is covered with forests looking out into crystal clear waters. Its purity is evidenced by the fact that it is used for the production of mineral water.
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On the islands and around the lake there is the largest forest park in China, where 90 species of birds and about 60 species of wild animals live. This picturesque area is visited by many tourists. Each island has attractions, as well as its own name. The most popular are Bird Island, Serpent Island, Monkey Island, and Castle Island, which houses the Castle Museum.
Admiring these beauties, many tourists are unaware of the tragedy that broke out here more than half a century ago. During the construction of the dam and hydroelectric power station, the Chinese communist government did not care much about the interests of the people living in the valley to be flooded.
From here about 290 thousand people were forcibly resettled. The man-made sea flooded 27 cities, 1,377 villages, thousands of residential buildings and almost 50,000 acres of farmland.
But at least people were not allowed to drown, unlike the monuments of architecture and art that remained in ancient cities. For some reason, no one bothered to preserve even the most valuable of the historical heritage. The cities were not mentioned for 40 years - until 2001, when the Ministry of Tourism decided to turn these places into a tourist attraction.
After that, a specialized diving center was organized here, whose workers were engaged in exploring the underwater depths in search of ancient wonders. Thus, the ancient city of Chun'an was rediscovered to the world.
Lion city
Chun'an is often called Shi Chen (Lion City) because it is located at the foot of Wu Shi Mountain (Five Mountain Lions). These "five lions" still guard the peace of the city, which has gone to a depth of 40 meters. The first mentions of Chun'an date back to 621. At that time, the Tang Dynasty ruled in China. Shi Chen was the administrative, cultural and economic center of the region.
The city was very beautiful. And this beauty was preserved at the bottom of the lake, because its purest water saved the relics from the destructive effects of wind and precipitation. That is why archaeologists call such places with flooded cities "time capsules".
True, only people prepared for deep diving can now see this splendor. They can be convinced that under the water all five city gates with gate towers decorated with stone carvings, six main stone streets, houses decorated with intricate figures, medieval walls guarded by beautiful figures of stone lions are perfectly preserved under the water.
Even the wooden beams and steps of the stairs survived (however, if they are removed from the water, they immediately turn black, then dry out and become unusable). Stone vaults, wall paintings-patterns, huge towers, stone Chinese dragons with bizarre horns frozen in attack, amazing monuments flooded and buried under the water of an artificial mirror lake - this is a heart-stirring, immortal and eternal underwater city of Shi Chen.
Water is the best keeper
Lake Qingdao hides two more ancient cities, one of them - Suian, sometimes called He Cheng - even older than Lion City. It was founded in 208 during the reign of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He is not as handsome as Shi Chen, but there are many interesting things in him. Archaeological research is currently underway in Suian and is still closed to outsiders.
The Chinese authorities have taken some steps to make the ancient underwater cities more accessible to visit. For example, there was a proposal to build an underwater tunnel for tourists, but the project was put on hold due to the possibility of damaging ancient buildings. A submarine with a capacity of up to 48 passengers was also under construction, in which it would be possible to dive into the waters of the lake. But this project was not finished either.
Various proposals were repeatedly put forward that could preserve all this historical heritage, but they were all considered incredibly expensive. Today, China cannot afford it. In addition, many experts believe that it is best to do nothing at all now, so as not to worsen the current situation. Scientists believe that the underwater environment preserves relics better.
Giant Lemur Buildings
There are many underwater cities on Earth. But the most amazing and ancient one was found 100 kilometers east of the island of Taiwan, near the Japanese island of Yonaguni in the Ryukyu archipelago. In 1985, a Japanese scuba diving instructor named Kihachiro Aratake accidentally discovered at a depth of six meters not far from this island, strange giant multi-meter blocks with a regular geometric shape. He reported his find to Professor of Marine Seismology Masaaki Kimura of Ryukyu University.
When the professor personally examined the pitfalls, he came to the unequivocal conclusion that we are talking about a sunken city built on a rock. In the course of a subsequent scientific expedition to the Pacific bottom, which took place in 1998, measurements of the underwater ruins were carried out, and then, based on the collected data, a model of the entire underwater city was drawn up.
It turned out that all the underwater giant blocks are arranged in such a way that they resemble the terraces of a city nestled on one of the rocks. It is also interesting to note that at the base of the slope, located 30 meters under the water, there are numerous scattered giant blocks, which can be regarded as the result of an incredible earthquake that befell this city.
Scientists have established that the age of these buildings is 8000 years. But what civilization could possess the technology of processing such huge stones at that time? And then someone who was involved in mysticism remembered one place from the "Secret Doctrine" by Helena Blavatsky: "… the Lemurians, in their sixth subrace, build their first rock-like cities of stone and lava."
So a hypothesis arose that these underwater ruins belong to the giants-Lemurians. After all, the continent of Lemuria extended over the entire Pacific Ocean and included this corner of the Earth.
Upon closer examination of these underwater ruins, direct evidence of their man-made origin was found. In particular, it has been found that some of the giant blocks have regular round shaft holes. Other signs of targeted block processing were also found.
Interestingly, on the island of Yonaguni itself there are the remains of the same giant stepped terraces. The only difference is that the above-water ruins are dotted with wrinkles-depressions that have arisen under the influence of the atmospheric climate (wind, rain, temperature drop), and the underwater ruins are covered with a layer of shells.
In addition, a little to the north of Yonaguni Island, near the Kerama Islands, giant stone labyrinth passages have been discovered under water. Near the island of Aguni, located in the same archipelago, traces of huge holes of the correct round shape were found.
And not far from Chatan Island, giant rectangular vertical shafts and horizontal terraces have been discovered. In a word, we can say that in the area of today's Ryukyu archipelago during the existence of the continent of Lemuria there was a whole center of the Lemurian cyclopean civilization, which in prehistoric times went under water along with the entire continent.
There is no doubt that in the future new details of this underwater center of the Lemurian civilization may be revealed, if, of course, relevant underwater archaeological research is carried out there by serious scientific institutions.
There are probably many such "time capsules" that have not yet been discovered by people in the waters of our planet. And in the future, inquisitive researchers will meet new amazing secrets.