The Sunken World Hiding Under the Water's Surface - Atlas Obscura Lists

The Sunken World Hiding Under the Water's Surface

27 drowned places that used to be above ground.

There is an entire submerged world hidden just below sea level, largely out of sight to terrestrial beings today. The Earth’s shores are lined with sunken cities, flooded crypts, drowned forests, and submerged structures that have been lost underwater over the millennia, overtaken by nature or human development.

Rising sea levels and flooding caused by earthquakes, landslides, changing tides, melting glaciers, or manmade dams have wiped entire villages off the map. And sometimes, when the water recedes, these submerged cities and landscapes reemerge from the depths, an eerie glimpse at the invisible sunken world.

St. Petersburg, Florida

Sunken Gardens

A Florida plumber drained a lake to plant this garden in the fertile soil that lay 15 feet down at its bottom, creating a luxuriant botanical garden below sea level.
Sponsored by Visit St. Pete/Clearwater