Here are the 8 of the most unbelievable underwater discoveries!
Today's video is done in collaboration with What Lurks Below!
8 - Lord Krishna’s Lost City of Dwarka
The Legendary City of ancient Dwarka has been part of Hindu Folklore for as long as anyone
can remember.
As mythology explained it, Dwarka was a place where Lord Krishna and the Evil King Slava
once squared off.
This evil king supposedly attacked the city with flying machines, a story that has been
long speculated for UFO Researchers.
That’s the short version of the story anyway.
The city of Dwarka was described as having hundreds of thousands of royal palaces decked
out in crystals, emeralds and silver.
Which sounds a bit exaggerated, if I’m gonna be honest here.
Nevertheless, it was always regarded as a myth.
That was until divers from the National Institute of Ocean Technology in India discovered the
sunken remains of this once ridiculous city.
Found in the Gulf of Khambhat, the ancient ruins, which consist mostly of large, semicircular,
rectangular and squared shaped stone structures, are thought to be about 9,000 years old.
Divers also found evidence of a large sea port and a complex grid of streets.
While the discovery is largely thought to be proof that the city of myth and legend
did indeed exist many years ago, and that it was in fact a thriving place, with many
advanced features, it doesn’t necessarily prove everything the legends refer to.
For example, ancient texts and mythology refer to advanced weaponry, and flying machines
used during the epic showdown between Lord Krishna and the evil King Slava.
The reference often inspires proponents of ancient aliens.
However, among the ruins, there wasn’t any evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships or
anything close to resembling that.
But don’t let the absence of alien aircraft take away from what’s still an amazing and
fascinating discovery.
7 - Trees and River in the Black Sea
Apparently trees can grow underwater.
Even more incredible, rivers can flow under water as well.
At least that’s what’s going on in the Black Sea.
In 2010 scientists from the University of Leeds discovered a full fledged river flowing
through the Bosphorus strait.
This was especially cool, because scientists had long theorized that this sort of thing
was totally possible, but couldn’t actually prove it until this discovery.
Now what’s really amazing about the river is the fact that this river had all the features
that a standard above surface river may have.
Trees, riverbanks, rapids, and waterfalls.
This discovery is the first of its kind.
It’s estimated that on land, the undersea river would be the world’s sixth largest
in terms of the volume of water flowing through it.
It’s about 350 times greater than the River Thames and 10 times greater than Europe’s
biggest river, the Rhine.
So how does an insane natural phenomenon like this occur?
Well these rivers form from water that is much denser than the surrounding water due
to the difference in salinity and sediment content.
While they do typical river things, such as flood and erode riverbanks, scientists don’t
know all that much about them because they’re difficult to study.
The underwater river in the Black Sea is known to be powerful and unpredictable and has mostly
been observed with robotic submarines and sonar scans.
Obviously, there’s still a lot we can learn from these underwater rivers.
6 - Yonaguni Monuments
This one’s kinda controversial, since there’s no consensus about whether or not they’re
natural or man made.
Professor Masaaki Kimura maintains that the Yonaguni Monuments are made by monoliths.
Others however, believe that the discovery was simply a natural formation underwater,
that just looks pretty cool.
The discovery was made in 1987 by divers looking to do some shark watching off the coast of
the Island of Yonaguni.
They found a series of formations that included two pillars that come within about 2.4 meters
of the surface, a 23 foot tall stone column, a 33 foot long wide wall, a 16 foot wide ledge,
and an L shaped rock.
However, how these formations got there seems to be a contentious topic.
Some people say it’s alllllll perfectly natural, however, some people in this camp
also acknowledge that the natural formations may have been altered or used by humans in
some capacity.
Professor Kimura, however believes that they are artificial structures that date back some
2-3 thousand years.
He goes on to claim he can identify a castle, some pyramids and a stadium, all remnants
of the fabled lost continent of Mu.
As legend has it, the continent of Mu sank into the Pacific Ocean.
Today’s scientists dismiss the concept of Mu, and of other alleged lost continents,
as physically impossible, arguing that a continent can neither sink nor be destroyed in the short
period of time required.
Mu's existence is now considered to have no factual basis.
Man-made or not, these discovered monuments or formations would still be fascinating to
explore in person!
5 - The Lost City of Heracleion
At the time of its discovery back in 2000, it was just a myth.
The Lost City of Heracleion was a legend that no one actually was looking for.
But one day, French archaeologist Franck Goddio was diving near the coast of Alexandria when
he discovered the ancient ruins of the lost city.
According to a handful of ancient inscriptions, the city of Thonis-Heracleion once controlled
all of the trade into Egypt some 2,300 years ago.
Back then, this city was one of the premier port cities in the whole world.
So it’s kind of baffling how a bustling city like this ended up under water.
Experts think the city sank sometime around 1200 years ago, possibly due to a process
called liquefaction, meaning that the soil under the city was so saturated it lost its
strength and the city eventually sank.
Among the ruins were more than 60 sunken ships and hundreds of anchors.
The ancient, yet well preserved city made from granite was surrounded by a series of
sophisticated canals.
The city was centered around a massive Temple, which was a shrine to the god Amun, an ancient
Egyptian Deity.
Also discovered was a treasure trove of gold coins and tons of statues, some of which stood
as tall as 16 feet.
Not only was the finding just visually impressive, it also provides clarification for historians.
Historical references to the cities of Thonis and Heracleion were always kind of confusing,
because historians theorized that they were references to the same city.
This accidental discovery by Goddio confirmed that, in fact, they WERE the same city.
4 - The Ancient City of Pavlopetri
5,000 years ago, a city called Pavlopetri was located in present day Greece.
Today the remains of this once great city can be found 4 meters underwater.
Dating back at least five millennia, Pavlopetri is believed to be one of the oldest known
submerged cities in the world.
When a team of archaeologists led by Nicholas Flemming in 1967 discovered this city, they
found a place that was incredibly well designed.
Years later scientists were able to use advanced technology to virtually reconstruct what the
city may have looked like above ground, and let’s just say that the results were pretty
impressive.
Complex streets, two story stone buildings, gardens, temples, tombs and water management
systems were all prominent features of this ancient city.
What’s really wild is that the city was actually pretty well preserved.
The basic layout of the city still intact, which is rare for a city that’s been underwater
for about 3,500 years.
To fully grasp how awesome this find was, let’s talk a minute about how important
of a city Pavlopetri was.
This place reigned supreme for about 2,000 years.
It spanned from the Bronze age to the birth of Western Civilization.
It’s believed that the city sank after a series of earthquakes.
As a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pavlopetri benefits from the effort to preserve
the site from further destruction.
3 - The Mariana Trench
In 1875, Oceanographers discovered the deepest depths of the ocean.
Located more than 120 miles below the ocean’s surface off the coast of the Mariana Islands,
is The Mariana Trench.
This trench is absolutely gargantuan.
Take this into consideration.
Let’s say you could somehow pluck Mount Everest, the biggest mountain in the world
out of the ground and put it all the way down to the bottom of the trench, it would still
be one mile below the top of the trench.
That’s how deep the trench is.
Incredibly, at a depth of more than 36,000 feet, there was life discovered in this massive
underwater trench.
Among the life discovered are some shrimp, flatfish and single celled amoebas.
The trench was first discovered in 1875 during the Challenger Exploration using a method
called Depth Sounding, which is a way to measure depth in the ocean.
Since then, several manned explorations have occurred and planned explorations are also
in the works, so that we can learn even more about the incredible depths of the ocean.
2 - Strange Things in General
At #2 we’re just gonna look at some of the more interesting objects that have been found
underwater.
Swedish Divers came across an odd circular object on the floor of the Baltic Sea.
Not only does it look pretty interesting, it’s also hard to explain.
No one seems to understand what it is or how it got there.
It was June of 2011 when the Ocean X Swedish diving team led by Peter Lindberg and Dennis
Asberg found this massive circular object at the bottom of the sea.
Whatever it is, it measures at an impressive 200 feet in diameter and 13 feet thick.
Not long after they found this mysterious object, the Ocean X Team found something that
looks sorta like a staircase with a black hole that goes directly into the structure.
And to add another layer of confusion, they claim their electronic equipment suddenly
stopped working near the object.
Does this sound like it’s out of a movie yet?
So what is it?
Good question.
Some people think it’s part of a shipping vessel or perhaps a remnant of a WWII submarine.
Others have speculated that it’s an alien spaceship that crashed into the sea.
However, no evidence to support the alien claim has been made public, if it even exists
at all.
On the other end of the spectrum Geologists familiar with the object think it simply might
be a natural formation.
But that sounds kinda boring.
There’ve been other things found underwater that are a bit baffling, such as the underwater
circle patterns at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Since it’s hard to explain, certain people automatically explain it by saying saying
“It’s aliens.”
However, people later figured out Japanese Puffer Fish make these circles as part of
their mating ritual.
Lastly there’s the Bimini Road, found off the coast of Bimini Island in the Bahamas.
Discovered in 1968, no one is quite sure what to make of these rock formations.
Consisting of three large rock structures, people generally think it’s a natural occurrence.
With that in mind, there are those who argue that it’s man made.
One theory is that it was built by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, who in 1421, allegedly
went on an expedition around the world.
When the fleet was caught in a hurricane, they built the structure as a way to haul
damaged goods to shore in order to refit the ship, and was left behind.
If true, it obviously has since submerged under water.
Other research and discovery of more rocks beneath Bimini Road have led some to believe
that it’s somehow connected to the Lost City of Atlantis, but let’ just not open
that can of worms just yet!
1 - The Titicaca Underwater Ruins
Nestled in the Andes Mountains between Bolivia and Peru is one of the world’s largest freshwater
lakes, Lake Titicaca.
Deep down in this lake are some of the most incredible ancient ruins known to man; more
specifically, a roughly 1,000 year old Temple was discovered by divers.
They also found the remnants of a road, a terrace for crops, and a massive containing
wall.
These ruins are thought to pre-date Inca civilization.
The Temple was pretty amazing, measuring 660 feet long and 160 feet wide.
There are also sculptures and other interesting objects found in and around the temple, suggesting
that this discovery could be some sort of ancient religious shrine.
The containing wall measured an astonishing 2,600 feet long as well.
Scientists also discovered animal bones submerged near the ruins, which suggests that maybe
this ancient civilization was into making animal sacrifices.
To fully understand the significance of this finding, you should know that Lake Titicaca
is considered the cradle of South American Civilization.
Before the Inca Empire was running the show, ancient civilizations made the shores and
islands of Lake Titicaca their home.
Professor Ruben Vela has theorized that this ancient temple was once lakeside, and could
have been some sort of meeting place for religious leaders.
While the exact purpose is still unknown, scientists think the Temple is anywhere between
1,000 and 1,500 years old.
Hey guys, thanks to What Lurks Below for today’s collaboration!
Make sure you check out their latest video here!