China's Atlantis: The Thousand-Year-Old Lion City Submerged for Half a Century

By MOOK Scenic Spots Jun(e), compiled and reported

Atlantis is a legendary highly advanced civilization that mysteriously sank into the sea overnight twelve thousand years ago, and to this day, the reason remains an unsolved mystery for archaeologists. But the disappearance of ancient civilizations is not limited to Atlantis. In 1959, in order to build the Xin'anjiang Reservoir, two ancient cities from the Han and Tang dynasties — Hecheng and Shicheng — were submerged beneath Qiandao Lake in Zhejiang. The sunken cities, lost for half a century, were captured and unveiled by Chinese CCTV using underwater robots and cameras.

Shicheng has become a renowned underwater ancient city and was listed as a cultural heritage site under protection by Zhejiang Province in January 2011. Although the historical period listed is the Ming and Qing dynasties, the history of Shicheng actually dates back to 208 AD (late Eastern Han Dynasty). Currently, the general outline of the ancient city has been mapped out, but many details and historical mysteries remain undiscovered.