Again, this might not look like much at first glance. It looks like some kind of natural land collapse that is simply being fixed. But that’s far from the full story. In 2017, archeologists discovered more than 10,000 relics in the Chinese Sichuan town of Jiangkou. The site tells a pretty wild story.
Zhang Xianzhong led a peasant revolt, eventually conquering Sichuan in the 1600s. It didn’t take long for the Qing army to end his rule though. Legend has it that upon his defeat, more than 1000 ships sank into this river, many of which contained treasure such as golden earrings, rings, bracelets, hairpins, weapons, and many more valuables from the Ming dynasty. This discovery all but confirmed that.
Giant Underwater Pyramids
In 2013, an amateur sailor named Diocletian Silva was fishing on his yacht in the Atlantic Ocean when, suddenly, the boat's radar picked up a strange signal. Silva soon realized he had stumbled upon a colossal structure resembling a pyramid, and its tip was immersed about 40 feet below water.
The pyramid, located off the coast of the Azores islands in Portugal, reaches up to 60 meters in height, with a base of over 8,000 sq. meters. The structure is so perfectly shaped that Silva believes it might belong to the legendary lost city of Atlantis. But despite several theories about its origin and existence, experts are still unable to fully understand or explain this discovery. Which just makes it all the more fascinating.
The Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon
This dive site has become very famous following a TV documentary made by French oceanographer, Jacques Cousteau. It thrills tourists for its many shipwreck sites, that remain so visible less than 49 feet deep, and with minimal ocean currents.
It is located near New Guinea, and it used to be a military base for the Japanese Imperial forces back in World War II. The sunken warships can be seen underwater, and still on its deck numerous decaying payloads of ammunition, motorcycles, cars, tanks, and a variety of other things. Along the Truk group of islands, you can also see the I-169 Shinohara submarine that was part of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor, in 1941.
Dafni, Zakynthos
There is plenty of wreckage still lying on the seabed next to the Greek island of Zakynthos. While underwater cities and ancient relics have been unearthed over the years, this discovery was a little different from all the others. Near the diving site of Dafni, you can easily spot what is now considered to be an iconic sunken motorbike.
What makes the site special is how the bike still stands upright after all these years. But besides mounting the bike for a funny photo underwater, the area is laden with beautiful formations, as well as regular sightings of scorpion fish and octopuses.
Ancient Coins in the Mediterranean
Plenty of ancient coins have been discussed over the years in all kinds of places, and here is a great example from just a few years ago. In 2021, a bunch of coins were discovered from ancient shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea by Israeli marine archeologists.
These coins, which were discovered in the waters close to the city of Caesarea, were from two separate shipwrecks, which can be traced back to the Roman and the Mamluk periods. The finds included both bronze and silver coins, as well as 500 silver coins from the Middle Ages. This part of the world has been a strategic location for all kinds of trade, so these discoveries aren’t too surprising.