Beneath the mass of seas and lakes lie avenues, dwellings, and ports that humankind is only now starting to truly observe. Long before satellites and sonar, entire cities vanished underwater—some swallowed by earthquakes, others slowly eroded by the advancing ocean. For centuries their traces remained concealed, preserved only in writings, myths, and local lore.
In recent years, underwater archaeology has entered a fresh epoch. Between 2024 and early 2026, scholars, employing advanced diving techniques, geophysical surveys, and 3D modeling, re-examined some of the world’s most enigmatic submerged cities. These investigations reveal how these urban centers functioned, why they were lost, and what still remains beneath the waves. Seven of these sites offer a rare glimpse into cityscapes altered by natural disasters, environmental shifts, and the passage of time.
1) Thonis-Heracleion — Egypt.
Submerged in Abu Qir Bay near Alexandria, Thonis-Heracleion was a major Egyptian port connecting Mediterranean commerce with the Nile Valley interior. During recent phases of underwater expeditions led by Franck Goddio, new zones surrounding the Temple of Amun complex were documented, and a Greek sanctuary dedicated to Aphrodite was pinpointed to its east.
Among the artifacts recovered were imported bronze and ceramic goods, along with Greek weaponry, substantiating the presence of Greek merchants and mercenaries in the city well before the Hellenistic era.
These findings reinforce the perception of Thonis-Heracleion as a multinational commercial gateway, where sacred spaces and port infrastructure were deeply interconnected before the city was claimed by ground subsidence and seismic flooding.
2) Canopus — Egypt.
Canopus, another significant metropolis in Abu Qir Bay, continues to reveal extensive Roman structures as objects are brought up from the seabed and documented. Reports from August 2025 detail underwater surveys that uncovered what archaeologists describe as an “intact Roman city”: temples, cisterns, quays, fishponds, along with statues and architectural fragments.
This paints a picture of a coastal urban center featuring sophisticated embankment engineering and water management systems, suggesting long-term occupation and alterations extending into the Roman period.
The work also underscores Canopus’s wide maritime and trading significance in Alexandria’s economic sphere, allowing observers to see daily urban life and production now conserved beneath sediment and shallow water.
3) Toru-Aigyr — Lake Issyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan.
In late 2025, marine archaeologists working on Lake Issyk-Kul reported a major advance in studying the Toru-Aigyr complex, definitively confirming it was a full-fledged medieval city rather than a minor outpost. They uncovered fired-brick buildings, a grain mill or grindstones, large ceramic jars, and, crucially, an extensive Muslim necropolis dating from the 13th–14th centuries with graves oriented toward Mecca.
Researchers also mapped a substantial edifice that may have served a public or religious purpose (hypothetically a mosque, madrasa, or bathhouse). Several sources link the city’s disappearance to a powerful 15th-century earthquake and subsequent shifts in the shoreline. Toru-Aigyr stands as one of the clearest examples of a “rediscovered” sunken settlement linked to Silk Road trade.
4) Baiae — Italy.
Baiae, the legendary opulent Roman resort in the Bay of Naples, remains one of the most accessible submerged archaeological sites and continues to yield new finds. In July 2024, researchers announced the discovery of an exquisite underwater mosaic floor linked to a Roman villa within the underwater archaeological park, once again highlighting the elite nature of the city’s architecture.
In August 2025, archaeologists declared the uncovering of a sunken Roman bath complex featuring elements typical of heating systems and bathing facilities. Some accounts suggest it belonged to a prestigious villa associated with the Roman political elite. These discoveries prove that Baiae is not merely a well-known location but a site still delivering world-class revelations.
5) Olous — Greece.
Olous was an ancient Greek coastal town in northeastern Crete that gradually fell beneath the sea due to tectonic sinking and long-term sea-level rise. Unlike cities that vanished suddenly due to quakes or tsunamis, Olous’s ruins remained partially visible underwater for decades—walls and foundations lie near modern Elounda.
Although ancient records confirm the city’s existence, its precise layout and size were long ambiguous. Modern underwater surveys in the 2020s, utilizing new mapping methods, have refined earlier observations.
They confirmed that a large portion of Olous’s residential districts and waterfront areas now rests beneath the shallow depths. This city is a rare instance of slow oceanic “absorption,” illustrating how gradual environmental changes can erase an urban center over centuries, leaving it quietly resting beneath the water’s surface.
6) Dwarka — India.
Ancient Dwarka off the coast of Gujarat in western India has long been known to archaeology and legend as an important port from the Late Harappan or Early Historic period. In early 2026, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) announced the recommencement of a major program of terrestrial and marine investigation using modern technologies to explore previously unexamined coastal zones.
According to specialists, future efforts will concentrate not only on classic shore sites but also on underwater sectors near Bet Dwarka and the mouth of the Gomti River, where structural anomalies and stone objects were previously detected.
This initiative signals a significant intensification of research into Dwarka’s submerged urban fabric and suggests that a far more extensive portion of the ancient city may be preserved beneath the sediment and shallows. New information has the potential to substantially broaden our understanding of one of South Asia’s most famous sunken cities and its role in ancient maritime trade networks.
Hibara-juku was an Edo-period post town in what is now Kitashiobara village, Fukushima Prefecture. It was flooded in 1888 following the catastrophic eruption of Mount Bandai, which blocked river channels and led to the formation of Lake Hibara. The town’s fate was long known from historical accounts, but in December 2025, it underwent a scientific “second discovery.”
Researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Kyoto University, and other institutions published a high-precision 3D recreation of the submerged settlement, created using multibeam echosounder scans and historical cadastral maps.
Neighborhoods, roadways, water channels, and approaches to temples preserved on the lakebed were identified. Correlating bathymetric data with pre-war land records allowed for one of the most detailed reconstructions of a sunken historic city created during 2024–2025, vividly demonstrating how contemporary technologies can restore a lost urban landscape decades after its disappearance.
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