Sunken cities

What city was born and died because of the flood? What happened to be discovered in the Black Sea? And why the Chinese Shicheng City was flooded?

In 331 BC. Heraklion was full of life. Merchants from all over the world arrived in this city, and the magnificent celebrations did not cease for a minute ...

Greek historian Diodorus wrote that Hercules stopped the Nile during the flood and thereby saved the local inhabitants from imminent death. In gratitude for this they built a temple for him and named the city in honor of this hero.

Ironically, the city was born because of the flood and for the same reason was killed. In the I century BC. The temple in honor of Hercules and other majestic buildings washed away from the face of the earth. Now Heraklion rests at a depth of 50 meters in the Mediterranean Sea.

For the first time, the discovery of this underwater city was announced during the famous Egyptian expedition of Napoleon in 1798. Relatively recently, this was repeated by a group of French archaeologists. In that part of the Mediterranean, literally to the shores of Alexandria, an expedition was sent.

However, it does not always make sense to send out archaeological expeditions somewhere, because sometimes you can find a sunken city by accident. So in the Black Sea discovered the ancient Greek colony of Dioscuria.

Dioskuria is a city that is located in the area of modern Sukhum. Discovered the ruins of this city quite by accident. One of the bathers stumbled in 1953 on a plate under the water. Archaeologists began to conduct research and found the remains of an ancient city.

Moreover, this plate was already found, but then it could not be lifted. 60 years later, the researchers all the same plunged to the bottom and made a phenomenal discovery. It turns out that the modern city of Sukhum stands on the remains of even two ancient settlements: the Greek Dioscuria and the Roman fortress of Sevastopolis, which was built after the flooding of Dioscuria.

In the Kerch Bay another ancient Greek colony is hidden - Phanagoria. Its existence was known in the XVIII century, but excavations are very slow. The Black Sea reliably covered the ruins with a layer of sand and silt.

This is the second largest city of the Bosporus Kingdom, whose capital was Panticapaeum, the present Kerch. And Phanagoria was a large city by the standards. There is a fairly large layer of artifacts. Mostly, of course, they find ceramics, but there are also works of art and metal products.

For the title of Atlantis, only Chinese, and claims one more city. Shicheng City was founded in the 16th century, and was submerged in 1959. The reason was not a natural disaster, but a decision of the state to build a hydroelectric power station. Technological object has earned, and the city has plunged under water. Scientists are amazed at how well preserved Shicheng City - as if his water was embalmed. The Chinese government decided to at least somehow redress the blame and made the underwater city a tourist zone. For those who can dive with scuba, of course.