Modern cities are a real miracle of human thought and deed. People have created many amazing architectural monuments and amazing temples, palaces and simply striking memorable buildings. In this way, man is affirmed as the crown of creation, but sometimes nature reminds us who is the boss on the planet. Your attention - ten settlements that were once lively, but now completely flooded with water.
1. Remains of the Dian civilization
In 2001, a team of archaeologists exploring the Chinese Lake Fushian discovered a huge number of buildings and structures at its bottom. There have long been rumors among the locals about a ghost town, which in calm weather can be seen through the water column, and it turned out that they were not based on an empty place.
During subsequent dives, scientists discovered entire streets paved with stone slabs, the total area of the ruins was about 6.5 km². Subjecting the clay shards found in the underwater city to radiocarbon analysis, archaeologists calculated the time when the buildings went under water - about 1,750 years ago. Thanks to the waters of the lake, the found ruins are incredibly well preserved. Scientists say that the city was part of the Dian civilization, which was not inferior to Ancient Egypt in terms of development.
2. Aydum and the sea - who wins?
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In the northwestern part of Germany there is an area called the Wadden Sea (there is also a variant of the Wadden Sea) - this is a series of shallow-water Wadden areas belonging to the North Sea. The Wadden Sea is separated from the mainland by the chain of the North Frisian Islands, which, over time, are quickly destroyed by tidal waves.
A few hundred meters from the current coastline at low tide, you can see the remains of a settlement called Aydum. It is believed that people began to build up this area in the XIVth century, and since then the construction practically did not stop - the North Sea was inexorably advancing on land, resulting in constant destruction and flooding.
This continued until 1436, when the worst flood occurred on All Saints Day, which claimed the lives of 180 people. The settlers decided to move their houses to a hill, where the modern city of Westerland later arose. But until now, the ruins of Aydum, emerging from the waters at low tide, remind of the fearlessness and recklessness of the Frisians, who are arguing with the North Sea.
3. Ancient city of Olus
Crete in ancient times was one of the centers of human civilization, its influence spread far beyond the island itself. As a result of erosion and numerous earthquakes, some of the Cretan settlements were under water, which now attracts numerous tourists and diving enthusiasts to the island.
Among the sunken attractions was the city-state of Olus, a once flourishing metropolis with a population of 40,000. Olus, along with other large Greek cities, was distinguished by a high level of development of industry and trade, it surprised travelers and guests with its beautiful architecture, but had one significant drawback - almost all Olus buildings were built dangerously close to the sea and stood on sand, not limestone. like most other Cretan cities.
After an earthquake in the 2nd century AD, Olus was almost completely submerged in water. Today, the ruins of Olus are accessible to scuba divers and divers, who have the opportunity to literally plunge into the atmosphere of ancient history.
4. Lost castle Llys-Helig
According to legend, in the 6th century AD, the eminent Welsh ruler Helig Glanog erected a massive castle in the north of Wales, making Conwy Bay a part of his possessions. After the completion of construction, a terrible storm suddenly fell on the huge estate, and the sea quickly flooded all nearby lands - apparently, the elements did not like Helig's landowning ambitions.
A rocky ridge that looks out of the water about three kilometers from the coast now reminds of those events. This ridge is called Llys-Helig (in the translation from Welsh - “Helig's Palace”), although many archaeologists claim that in fact the ridge has a natural origin.
Recently, divers discovered a wall near the ridge, clearly created by a human hand, and studies have shown that it could well have been erected in the 6th century, so the legends can still sometimes be believed.
5. Bay of Mulifanua
Today Mulifanua is a tiny village on the northwestern tip of Upolu, one of the Samoan islands.
In the 1970s, during the construction of a ferry line connecting Mulifanua to Saleloga village on the neighboring island of Savaii, workers unearthed thousands of pottery shards on the seabed, giving the area the closest attention of archaeologists. Excavations that followed shortly after this revealed that earlier on this site was located one of the largest settlements of the Lapita people.
Lapita was inhabited by many islands of Micronesia and Polynesia, this civilization was one of the most advanced in the region and had a well-developed culture.
The city discovered at the bottom of the Mulifanua Bay is truly unique - the pottery found dates back to 800 BC, which suggests that the Lapita were at a higher stage of development compared to the rest of the tribes of this region. Today it is the oldest Lapita settlement discovered.
6. Feia is not a castle, but a whole city on the sand
Those who have studied the history of the ancient world will surely remember the Peloponnesian War, which raged between Athens and the cities of the Peloponnesian Union for almost 30 years.
A hot conflict that erupted in the 5th century BC covered the territory of the Aegean Sea and the northern Mediterranean, and one of the key in this region was the city of Feia: the Athenians used it as a transit point to supply troops with food.
However, Feya was not destined to survive until the end of the war - a powerful earthquake on the western coast of Greece plunged the city to a depth of five meters below the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, where Feya remained almost completely intact until 1911, when excavations of this ancient monument began civilization.
For more than a century, archaeologists have been carefully studying the ruins to get the most complete picture of the events of the Peloponnesian War.
7. Itil, a fusion of three cultures
This semi-mythical city, according to historians, was the capital of the Khazar Kaganate from the 8th to the 10th century.
In Arab sources the city is known as Hamlidj (Hamlykh), it was one of the main transshipment points of the Great Silk Road. Numerous caravans and travelers turned Itil into a gigantic cultural and religious cauldron, in which Christians, Jews and Muslims “cooked”.
The end of the heyday of Itil came when the Kiev prince Svyatoslav ravaged the rich city and destroyed it almost to the ground, after which the existence of Itil was forgotten for many hundreds of years. It would have remained only on the pages of ancient Arabic books and monographs of modern historians, but in 2008 Russian scientist Dmitry Vasiliev found ruins of the 8th century near the northern bay of the Caspian Sea, which are supposedly the remains of Itil. Now historians are looking for confirmation of this, hoping to find a description of Itil in the Khazar chronicles.
8. Rungholt - a city swallowed by the North Sea
Water has been stepping on land for a long time, and most often the sea is in no hurry, gradually destroying and "undermining" the islands and continents, but sometimes it makes unexpected sharp attacks, as a result of which the whole island can instantly be under water.
This is exactly what happened to the island of Strand, located in the waters of the North Sea.
A large island, with the city of Rungholt located on it, fell victim to the legendary southwestern Atlantic hurricane Gröthe-Mandrenke, which swept through Germany, England and the Netherlands on January 16, 1362. A powerful storm claimed the lives of about 25 thousand people and wiped out many villages and several cities from the face of the earth.
For hundreds of years, archaeologists and amateurs have been looking for the remains of the city of Rungholt, but so far only a few artifacts of those times have been found, the settlement itself together with the island has disappeared without a trace.
9. Phanagoria, a piece of Ancient Greece in Russia
During the heyday of ancient Greek civilization, there were few places in the world where the adventurous Greeks did not reach. Their empire, among other things, included several dozen settlements on the northern coast of the Black Sea - now these are the territories of Russia, Romania, Bulgaria and Ukraine. The largest of these port cities was Phanagoria, located on the Taman Peninsula, on the coast of the Kerch Strait.
This city with a rich history has gone through a lot: several wars, the invasion of the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator, who thus tried to fight against the increasing influence of the Romans in this region, and an unprecedented flourishing as the second capital of the Bosporan kingdom. Phanagoria was ruined by the Black Sea - at the beginning of the 10th century, residents left the city due to rising water levels and the threat of flooding. Now archaeologists are finding more and more evidence of the former power of this beautiful city. Rumor has it that the layers of water and sand, under which Phanagoria is now located, hide thousands of priceless treasures.
10. Seftinge - take care of your cities
The story of the ancient Dutch city of Seftinge is tragic and instructive. In the 13th century, the vast swamps around the city were drained to promote livestock and agriculture. For several hundred years Seftinge prospered, striking travelers and merchants with fertile arable lands, until the so-called All Saints' Flood in 1570 put an end to this - Seftinge became one of the cities that took the brunt of the elements, among them were Egmond and Bergen-op-Zoom.
Surprisingly, the water almost completely destroyed the agricultural land around Seftinge, but did much less damage to the city itself. The city was "finished off" by Dutch compatriots, who destroyed several dams during the 80-year war with Spain, as a result of which the area turned into a continuous quagmire with an area of about four thousand hectares, which swallowed the city.
Several attempts to drain the city have led nowhere, so now Seftinge serves only as a bait for tourists. Self-guided tours of the flooded city are prohibited: in some places during high tides, the water can rise several meters at once in just a few minutes, so travelers are always accompanied by an experienced guide.