Cities lost to the sea

Cities captured by the waves and drawn to a watery death captivate the imagination. Where once people bustled about their daily tasks, reclined at their leisure, and gathered to share the daily news, now fishes feed and sand sifts over their remains.

There are a number of cities that have been claimed by the sea; one is Heracleion, also known as Thonis, near what was once Alexandria.

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Statue of a pharaoh (©Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, photo: Christoph Gerigk), Collective Evolution

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Seventeenth-century Port Royal, a city of pirates, was known as the "wickedest city on earth." It was featured as a "location within Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film series, though much of the location work for Port Royal was actually done on the island of Saint Vincent, not in Jamaica. (Wikipedia)"

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Port Royal, Jamaica, Earth Porm

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Four more cities are listed by Earth Porm: The Pyramids of Yonaguni-Jima, Japan; Dwarka, Gulf of Cambay, India; Lion City of Quiandao Lake, China; and Cleopatra’s Palace, Alexandria, Egypt.

Andrew Handley has an article about lesser known mysterious underwater cities. The image below shows pottery found at Mulifanua, a tiny village perched on the northernmost tip of Upolu in the Samoan archipelago. This pottery dates back to about 800 B.C.

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Andrew Handley, Mulifanua Bay, Listverse

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-- Marge

Fabled Atlantis, lost continent

NASA, Bimini Island, Wikipedia

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The lost continent of Atlantis has captured imaginations for centuries. What confuses the issue of whether it really exists and where are the known accounts of it. Plato, writing around 360 BC in Timaeus (dialogue), says

For it is related in our records how once upon a time your State stayed the course of a mighty host, which, starting from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean, was insolently advancing to attack the whole of Europe, and Asia to boot. For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean. For all that we have here, lying within the mouth of which we speak, is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent. (Wikipedia)

Pillars of Hercules is the ancient name for the Straits of Gibralter.

Among the several problems with researching Atlantis are the varying interpretations of its location and that its fabled powers are fare for conspiracy theories and metaphysics alike. Discovery of Atlantis theorizes that ancient Atlantis is located in the Mediterranean between the island of Cyprus and the eastern mainland. It was my readings on Edgar Cayce that introduced me to the mysteries of Atlantis and I must admit I'm partial to his information and interpretations.

About the only (possibly) solid evidence of an Atlantean civilization we have is Bimini Road, a series of rocks that appear to be dressed stone arranged like a road or wall. There is little agreement on whether the stones are worked or natural. And dating them has proved problematic.

Venturing off into the unprovable (at least, so far) here's a replay from the History Channel's speculative series "In Search of..." This episode is one of three about Atlantis near Bimini.

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For a while it looked like evidence of Atlantis had been found on Google Earth. But new information from NOAA has erased it (it was due to an overlap of datasets anyway).

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-- Marge