6 Real Sunken Cities

Atlantis wasn't real. Plato, who invented the continent off the cuff for the sake of philosophical discussion, made it completely clear that the sunken continent was entirely hypothetical. Mu and Lemuria are also purely hypothetical, and most scientists don't beleive that there is any true scientific evidence to support their existence.

Nevertheless, there are a number of verified ruins that lay in watery graves on the ocean floor.

Mahabalipuram

The Indian city of Mahabalipuram was, at one point, much larger. Legend has it that the Shore Temple, a popular and beautiful attraction in the area, was actually one of seven temples created in a series. For centuries, this was dismissed as a myth, but divers have now found a tremendous portion of ancient Mahabalipuram submerged in the ocean. This finding included a massive temple with walls, stone blocks, platforms and steps similar to the Shore Temple.

The legend may be true, after all. Perhaps there are five more temples in the sunken city of Mahabalipuram. But it still begs the question: what happened to shove such a prosperous city into the depths of the ocean?

Port Royal

A relatively modern sunken city, Port Royal plunged into the ocean during a catastrophic earthquake in the 17th century. The portions of the city hit the hardest sank into the ocean so quickly, and so directly, that huge portions of the town were left perfectly preserved. Entire blocks, homes and streets remain more or less structurally intact. Photos of the sunken city look like eerie underwater ghost towns, frozen in time.

Fascinatingly, Port Royal was regarded as the most evil city on Earth when an earthquake swallowed the city. The superstitious still believe that Port Royal's pirates and prostitutes contributed to its demise.

Alexandria

A massive portion of the city of Alexandria was swept under a tidal wave over 1,600 years ago. This included not only some of the city's notable public buildings, homes and businesses, along with the famed Pharos lighthouse and a colossal statue of King Ptolemy. This epic underwater discovery has unveiled nearly 3,000 individual buildings and artifacts, some of which are amazingly preserved.

The icing on this underwater cake is the epic palace of Cleopatra, still preserved and in just a few pieces. The halls, domes, towers, walls, roofs and chambers of the building remain as hauntingly beautiful as ever.

Pavlopetri

This 5,000-year-old Greek settlement is the oldest confirmed sunken city on Earth. Before its drowning demise, Pavlopetri was a major point for trading, culture and transportation. Today, it lies beneath the waves, more or less in tact after five millenia under water. Archaeologists have uncovered homes, tombs, roads, courtyards and temples all arranged in a remarkably well-planned urban center.

Pavlopetri is remarkable not only because of its underwater location, but also because it reflects a time that we envision as a dark and primitive age-- in a way that seems strangely familiar to our own modern way of life.

Cultures around the world have long treasured tales of sunken cities, because they reflect our own anxiety about the impermanence of our world and lifestyle. And, while most mythological sunken cities are nothing more than cultural legends, there are many real submerged cities that remain frozen in time on the ocean floor.