March 22, 2023 • 30 mins
No need to search for the lost city of Atlantis; there are real, ancient underwater cities you can visit around the world. In this episode, we dive into some of the most compelling destinations to find out what you can expect from a visit. We also feature several sites that require no diving experience. The Layover series is our monthly show that features current travel news, lesser known destinations to consider for your next adventure, travel tips, and investigations into the latest trends. Tune in until the end to hear about this month's travel gem in Slovenia!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:14):
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh and
diverse perspectives from traveling enthusiasts all overthe world. This is the layover our
monthly travel show in which we investigateall things travel, update you on the
latest travel news, and occasionally we'lllook into a questionable trend so you don't
have to Our lesser known destination locationtoday will be a beautiful lake in Slovenia.
(00:38):
Stick around until the end if youwant to hear all about it and
what makes it a lesser known destinationyou should consider for your next zero trip.
I'm your co host John o'taro andI'm Saska have Money. And before
we start, I have to saythat today is a special day because we
are in studio in person. Ifyou've been following us for a while,
you know that that's pretty rare forus. It's great to see you in
(01:00):
person. John, you're in fullHD and I'm also and I'm also a
little nervous. It's kind of weird, but excited to be here in person.
And if you missed our last episode, we spoke with TV anchor and
journalist Danielle Seat, who spent asemester abroad like no other, at least
(01:21):
that I had heard of. Insteadof setting abroad in just one country,
Danielle went to twelve and that's becauseshe spent the entire semester on a floating
campus, basically on a big cruiseliner ship. Twice a year, this
ship embarks on a world tour withsix hundred students aboard along with the crew
(01:41):
and college professors. This opportunity iscalled a Semester at C and it's run
by a nonprofit organization. It claimsto be open to any college student.
So if you want to hear aboutwhat this unique experience was like and how
you can apply, check out thatlast episode. We no you'll enjoy it,
and there is a great episode.Definitely if you're on the fence about
(02:04):
studying abroad, something you should consider. I wish I would have thought about
it when I was back in collegefor that Semester at C program, don't
we all? But in this episode, we're going to talk about visiting the
Lost City of Atlantis. Just kiddingin all seriousness. Today we're going to
talk about some really cool underwater citiesand ruins you can visit as a tourist.
But first we're going to talk aboutsome trending travel news. Last month,
(02:29):
I brought up the fact that theUS government has strongly advised against traveling
to Mexico during spring break due tothe increased threats of crime and kidnapping.
The US list at their highest warninglevels for areas inside of Guerrero, Klima,
Mitakan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, andSacatecas. It sat update to that
story, on the third of March, four Americans were kidnapped by armed men
(02:51):
while driving into the city of Matamoros, which resides in Tamaulipas, Mexico,
across the border with Texas. Twoparish in the kidnapping by gunfire, and
two were found alive and are nowback in the United States. Truly tragic.
You know. Another news, thegovernment in Nepole has banned solo trackers
throughout the country. The decision comesfive years after banning solo adventurers from climbing
(03:14):
Mount Everest. Nampaul is known forbeing home to eight of the tallest mountains
in the world, but it's alsoknown for beautiful trekking regions. So while
the mountaineering industry is one of thecountry's biggest moneymaker, Saskia. The cost
of search and rescue missions for hikersis significant and was a primary reason for
the band. And last, butnot least, I have one that I
think you'll like. Since you're allabout the TikTok trends, we have a
(03:36):
controversial one for you. And thisis a travel hack for booking flights that
may get you a row all toyourself. So I'm really curious to hear
what you have to say about thisone. This has been dubbed as the
poor poor man's first class flight.Essentially, this controversial TikToker books three tickets,
all in the same row, twoof which have been purchased to be
fully refundable, and are canceled fortyfive minutes before the flightparture. This leaves
(04:00):
the entire row of three seats forone passenger to sit back and relax.
I mean, I could see whypeople would be upset about this. My
initial impulse is to say, well, if you're taking seats from that would
otherwise be filled, it's not environmentallyfriendly, kind of not cool. In
(04:20):
case, maybe someone really needed thatflight to be somewhere for you know,
an important event, a death intheir family, like, who knows?
You know, what are the fourarguments? Well, I read through the
comment section and the four was like, Hey, anything to get you a
seat all to yourself. It's asmart travel hack. I think the cons
(04:42):
that you listit are some of themore prevalent ones that I saw while reading
the reviews or comments. There arepeople on standby on most flights that I've
ever traveled on. So if youare one of those individuals that cancel some
of those flights last minute, chancesare you still probably won't get that row
all to yourself. You have tobe extremely lucky. And yeah, I
hope that no stand by passengers geton your row. How do you know
(05:06):
that there are stand by people onyour flight? I don't know that I've
ever noticed that. Oh yeah,and inside every single one of the terminals,
there's screens that are on the boardthat tell you stand by passengers really
has initials or actually like the firstthree letters of I want to say,
the last name and maybe first initialor first letter of your first name.
(05:26):
Yes, so next time you're onthe flight, look all the flights have
of this. Wow. I wastotally oblivious to that. But yeah,
if you're listening, let us know, what do you think about this whole
book? Three seats in a rowand then cancel us. That's what I
think. Yeah, okay, we'rekind of agreeing. Then yeah, but
what do you think? Let usknow. We'll put out a poll on
Instagram too. All right, Sotalking about the lost city of Atlantis,
(05:50):
right, let's get back to that. So I think when a lot of
people here underwater city, they mightautomatically think of Atlantis, which is not
a real place. Let's I thoughtyou were going to say the Disney movie
right now, me too, ninetiesbabies, But yeah, I mean it's
(06:10):
it's not a real place, orat least some people think it is real.
I mean, you know, butthe reality is. And I was
actually kind of surprised to find thisout that there are a lot of underwater
cities or lost cities as people liketo refer to them. And so we're
going to talk about a few ofthose and how they became underwater cities and
how you can visit them. Andthe very first one we're going to talk
(06:33):
about has to do with pirates,a super cool subject. Port Royal in
Jamaica was once the largest city inthe Caribbean, and it was known especially
for its pirates, sex workers,and booze. It was a major trading
port and initially home to privateers.I don't know if you know what.
(06:57):
No, that was going to bemy follow up question, what are privateers?
So privateers were basically hired crew onships that were hired by government to
attack and plunder Spanish treasure ships,at least in that area, because the
Spanish Empire was alive and well,and this was at a time when European
countries did not have the guts basicallyto attack Spain directly. So privateers often
(07:20):
eventually became pirates, probably because theyrealized they could cut out the middleman and
just loot the ships themselves and takeeverything. So Port Royale was a big
location of privateers and so as aresult pirates. It was called the most
wicked and sinful city in the worldand was world famous for its drink of
(07:45):
choice called kill Devil rum, arum so strong that some said it killed
those who drank too much. Youknow, it's interesting because I'm going to
talk about a few cities in citiesunderwater in a little bit, but a
few of them have been dubbed likethe Las Vegas of their times, and
that's kind of what this city alsoreminds me of. So maybe that's why
they're on their water. They're toosinful. Well, it kind of plays
(08:09):
into the legend. So in sixteenninety two, a massive earthquake basically swallowed
the city and the town, whichwas built largely on sand, suffered from
something called liquefaction. Is essentially thewhole town sunk, so buildings, roads,
and citizens were sucked into the ground. Then geysers erupted from the earth
(08:31):
as in like giant No, it'snot it's not fake. I did a
lot of research on this. Buildingscollapsed, and then it was finally hit
by tsunami waves. So whatever hadn'tbeen destroyed was like dragged into the sea,
including the cemetery where Captain Morgan wasburied. So so a lot of
people said, were you know,saying that because it was such a sinful
(08:54):
city, like you know, itwas fate. In the end, fifty
one acres of the city disappeared underwater, two thousand people were killed, three
thousand died of injuries or disease shortlyafter. So yeah, it was a
big event. In Kingston, whichis right next door, basically took over
the role of Port Royal. Soabout today, can you visit it?
(09:18):
And the answer is yes, youcan visit it on a scuba diving or
diving excursion. You need permission fromlocal authorities, but apparently, from what
I understand, that's easy to getthrough just going through a local dive shadows
you would do anyway. But yet, have you looked up any pictures of
this? I did not, Soyeah, I think you gotta paint a
(09:39):
picture for our listeners. Well,I think this is a great moment to
kind of maybe like shatter a fewhearts, because what I found researching these
underwater cities was that a lot ofthe photos were either completely fake, like
digital renderings, or they were misappropriatedfrom other underwater things to make it seem
(10:07):
like that was the actual city's saying. They were ripping off like images of
other places and yes, claiming themas their own. For example, there
are a lot of underwater sculptures.I don't know if you know about this,
but all around the world there areunderwater installations. One of them is
a cemetery underwater created by the NeptuneSociety. Now the Neptune Society is a
(10:31):
cremation company, and they decided theywanted to build this underwater mausoleum. I
guess, and a lot of thepictures that were coming up for Port Royal
were actually of this underwater cemetery.And the way I found this out is
by reverse Google image searching it becauseI was like, I can't figure out
(10:52):
what this archway is, Like it'sbasically an image of a metal archway that's
intact and these stone arches, andyeah, that's just new. Yeah,
And I mean it's a kind ofinteresting that they do this because it's a
good put pun with what you weretalking about. Port Royal is known for
its pirates, for pirrating images offof other locations, right, yeah,
(11:15):
but it happened across the board forall of these cities. So if you're
sitting listening to this right now andgoogling these places, a lot of the
pictures that you're going to see areeither not real or they're from an installation,
like there was one that was astatue of a woman that's often used,
or statues of people underwater, likelots of them, and those are
(11:37):
often art installations and actually not fromthe actual place, the actual Port Royale
there. I mean, they're underwaterruins. And if you think about it,
this was at a time when alot of stuff was built out of
wood, you know, I meanthe event that I just described as catastrophic,
So you can imagine how not muchsurvived, right, And I think
(11:58):
one of the easiest ways to factcheck to see if this is true is
by seeing it with your own eyes. So this very next location is one
that I've personally visited. It's calledthe Sunken City of Baia. It is
spelled two different ways if you areItalian Baia, but it's located near Naples,
Italy or Napuli as they would say, and it's heyday. It was
(12:20):
considered the Las Vegas of its time, as we just talked about, yeah,
with the super rich and elite fromancient Rome vacationing there. So the
city was actually located over volcanic vents, so several spas were actually built over
the natural hot springs that were litteredall over the place in this area.
Do you have you ever heard ofEmperor Nero Cicero and of course Julius Caesar,
(12:43):
who my favorite salad Hopefully listening tothis, but I have a tattoo
of a really famous Julius Caesar sayingveni vidi vici in my left calf.
But people like this, really importantand influential Roman figures were known to frequently
visit, and unfortunately, in theeighth century the city was sacked and by
(13:03):
the fifteen hundreds, it sounds likeall say like because all of these cities
have like such a tragic doom thatit's kind of funny, but not really
especially so far. Both of themare sinful, so like, you know,
so we'll see what happens to Vegasin like five hundred years. But
by the fifteen hundreds the city wasabandoned and overtime the water level slowly rose
(13:26):
and the ancient ruins were drowned bythe shallow bay waters. So today Bay
it can be visited and I'll talka little bit about it. And it's
one of the world's few underwater archaeologicalparks. Wow, that's just a fancy
way of saying. It's an underwaterruins park, right, And visitors can
view the ancient structures and amazingly preservedstatues, which they are perfectly preserved through
(13:48):
glass bottom boats snorkeling or even scubadives which allow people to actually swim amongst
the copious ruins, which is whatI did. And to be real,
I would never ever dissuade anyone fromdoing this or visiting about to get a
candid opinion, but here and youknow it was coming, I would ask
them to manage expectations. These areruins, after all. And I was
(14:13):
really going into it expecting that thiswas going to be equivalent to Disney's,
you know, the City Last Cityof Atlantis. So I was expecting to
like swim where people were cooking andlike using the toilets and stuff like that.
And it's like you see it andit's like, oh, there's a
statue over there. Yeah, andthere's this half destroyed wall where a home
(14:37):
used to be built. And Ithink for me, maybe the crem of
the crop of the entire trip wasthat there was one part where you could
kind of see like a mosaic designand you knew it was ancient or you
know. But aside from that,I didn't. It's probably my fault,
but the expectations were a little bittoo high, So I'm glad I was
(14:58):
there. The water was really warm, and I was dying with the wet
suit on. But that's kind ofmy memory of this archaeological park in Italy.
Yeah, and I have seen picturesof those mosaics and it looks beautiful.
But yeah, it's I mean,was the visibility good because that can
(15:20):
also change, um, you know, this was twenty nineteen, so it's
been four years. I want tosay yes, but it's hard to really
give you an honest answer because thelast few scuba diving trips that I've taken,
the visibility was incredible. So whenit's compared to those last two trips,
no, it wasn't anything like that, but no, it was.
(15:41):
It was rather clear. I wouldsay, clear enough that I have some
awesome pictures that will post up andshow you what that's like. Yeah,
I did see one of those picturesand it looked to me like the visibility
was okay. But like it cantotally. It can change the feeling it
can it can change the feeling ofa play underwater when you're having those really
(16:02):
clear visibility days, like it's it'smagical, you know, So that can
also change the mystique about it.But yeah, I could see people being
underwhelmed. If they're like thinking it'sa lost city. You know, people
love I mean you'll google this andjust see the amount of articles or the
lost city of blah blah blah,and it's just that it's that's misleading.
(16:25):
You know. They are underwater.Yeah, and I think a lot of
a lot of the mystique around itfor me was I mean, now I
probably have a more favorable opinion ofit, knowing that Julius Caesar was once
upon the time stepping where I wasswimming. Yeah, that's kind of cool.
But um, but aside from that, you go check it out yourself.
The jury's out. But I alsowant to mention before we move on
(16:47):
to the next place. You know, in Port Royale, there are tons
of shipwrecks and just in general aroundthe world. So I think shipwrecks are
a really popular you know, divingspot a lot of the time because they're
pretty well preserved, you know,if they've been made out of metal and
all that kind of stuff. Andso that's also a good alternative if you're
(17:08):
looking for, you know, asort of mystical underwater adventure. Yeah,
that's you're trying. Yeah, Butbefore mentioning the name of his next city.
I want to start off with thisquote from archaeologists a really a Mason
Burghoff. It's kind of cool.As an archaeologist, discovering a tomb is
(17:32):
exciting, but it's the tomb ofone individual. Discovering a whole city which
was home to thousands and thousands ofpeople over more than a thousand years.
Well, that's something else. Sofound it around two thousand, seven hundred
years ago. Really put that intocontext. That's just a really long time
ago. It's on the side ofpresent day Abu Kir Bay, fifteen miles
(17:56):
northeast of Alexandria, which is probablya little more famous and I think well
known thoughness Heracleon and I hope Isaid that right predated it's better known neighbor
as the main trading port for theregion by several centuries and was a hub
for international commerce. So it soundslike a lot of these cities once upon
a time where really famous trading ports. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I
(18:18):
mean, and you know, precariouslyperched on the shore that maybe wasn't that
stable. Yeah, you know,there's a reason why we don't tend to
not want to build on in sandyareas. In the modern day, and
like if you're a homeowner, you'llknow what liquefaction is if you live in
like an earthquake zone, right.And so going back to this total mispronunciation
(18:41):
of a city thoughness, Heirocleon wassupposedly, supposedly the place where the Greek
hero Hercules first set foot in Egyptand somewhere where the lovers Paris and Helen
of Troy visited before the Chrojan Wars. So it does have this allure and
mystique of you know, his story, racle figures and mythic heroes. But
(19:03):
one thing I want to say isif you google this place, if you're
listening and you're googling this place,you can see a lot of giants,
statues, pottery, jewelry, wreckedships or shipwrecks, which we just talked
about. And currently there are plansin the works to construct an underwater museum
that would not only allow visitors tosee this place and the sunken treasures it
holds, but also to protect theancient city from pollution and poaching. Interesting,
(19:29):
okay, because a lot of whathappens to these underwater sites is before
they even allow the public there theygo in and they take all the artifacts
out, which is sad because itdoes kind of you know, the artifacts
are part of the history of theplace. So if you take that away,
and what's just a bunch of stackedstones and you know, so I
think that's a really cool idea towant to preserve, you know, the
(19:52):
way that they're that they were found, you know. And naturally you might
be thinking how did this city endup on the ocean floor? And scientists
theorized at a combination of earthquakes,tsunamis, and rising sea levels. Again
here we are, Yeah, atthe end of the second century caused the
ground on which the central island ofHeracleon was built to succumb to soil liquid
(20:17):
faction. Key word of the day. Yes, it's a great word.
I'm not gonna lie. It's terriblelike phenomenon for people who are living on
it. But the word itself,don't you think liquid faction? Like it
sounds like a superpower? Right?Yeah? All right, So that sounds
really cool that out of all theseplaces might be the one that I actually
(20:40):
would go out of my way tovisit. I think because when I googled
the images of this place it wasactually, Oh, you're talking about the
one you were about to mention.No, I'm talking about the one you
mentioned. Okay, I would havegotten to the one you're about to No,
I'm gotten getting there because when Igoogled it, it was the one
with the least fake images to it, as far as I could tell.
(21:03):
But anyway, let's move on.So so far we've talked mostly about naturally
sunken cities, but those aren't theonly underwater places. A lot of places
have actually been flooded in the lastone hundred years to make way for hydroelectric
tric dam projects. By far,the most interesting one is Kindao Lake in
(21:26):
China. It's a lake with athousand islands that was created when a hydroelectric
dam was built in nineteen fifty nine, so not that long ago. The
islands and air quotes are actually justthe tops of what hills once were.
When the valley was flooded, overa thousand villages were were evacuated, so
I think you know, when yousay villages, they could be like little
(21:48):
hamlets and stuff. Thousands of peoplehad to leave. And what makes this
interesting is that at the bottom ofthis lake, under one hundred and thirty
feet of water, which is aboutforty meters. There's a one thousand year
old city called Chi Chang, whichtranslates to the Lion City. Yeah,
and the few images that exist ofthis structure so far are really unbelievable,
(22:14):
intact carvings, statues, and inmany intact buildings. There are almost three
hundred arches still standing between beneath thelake, which is quite unique because all
the sites that we've talked about,remember they you know, have really been
destroyed, degraded by time and bythe disasters that have sunk them. And
(22:37):
a local dive company has been paidpainstakingly three D mapping this site by diving
and taking pictures of it. Youcan visit it, although it's not a
site that it's typically open for tourists, I think partially because I mean,
forty meters is you could do iton an open water patty. But it's
also quite murky, like the abilityis not that good. I watched a
(23:02):
few videos of them documenting the siteand even they were like it's a little
scary, you know, So yeah, and please google this city. I
actually think it's the coolest of thebunch that we're talking about. Today.
So I'm actually a little bit surprisedthat if you had the opportunity to visit
this location, that you wouldn't jumpat the opportunity, because when I look
(23:22):
at pictures of this underwater city,it's the one that most captures my attention
and brings a little bit of whatI thought Atlantis or Italy, the Italy
dive would have been like, yeah, you're one. You're one hundred percent
right about that. I mean,it's it's more intact, and therefore it
would be more interesting I think,And that brings us to another category which
(23:48):
actually you don't need to be adiver to experience. And again, these
are flooded cities, and what theyhave in called with what we were just
talking about is they were created byhydroelectric dams. In fact, this is
a very common occurrence around the world. One of these towns is San Roma
(24:11):
de Sao in Spain. It's aneleventh century village with a church that was
flooded in nineteen sixty five. Ofcourse, the village was evacuated. They
even took the dead out of thecemetery and put them in the new cemetery,
dismantled most of the buildings except forthe church. And so today this
(24:32):
beautiful stone church protrudes from the reservoirswater and it's really stunning, like it
looks beautiful. And even cooler isthat during a drought you can actually walk
around the ruins because they become exposed. There's another one of these in Spain
called Mediano. I mean, they'rejust gorgeous. You can google them and
(24:55):
yeah, really special and beautiful.Yeah, I'm actually googling them as you're
talking about them, so I'm tryingto get a picture in. We'll definitely
post some of these on their storiesso you can get a better idea of
what to expect. But these arethese are stunning. Yeah, And one
of the ones that's really beautiful isin Russia. It's called the It's called
the Kaliazine Bell Tower. The surroundingarea was flooded during the Stalinist era,
(25:19):
again destroying several towns and hamlets.Today, the only above water relic is
the stone Bell Tower, which ispartially submerged most of the most of the
year, but it's also revealed inits entirety on occasion. And it's quite
interesting because a lot of these places, you know, many people were displaced,
a lot of history was erased.Um, you know, you're talking
about ancient cities, and the citieswere often dismantled before they were even flooded.
(25:45):
But one common thing is true forall of them is that the single
thing left left standing is usually havingto do with the church. Um,
maybe there's something to it, youknow. Yeah, And then the very
last one I'll bring up is isa church tower in Italy which was submerged
when three lakes were joined after WorldWar Two. In winter, the lake
(26:07):
can freeze over, meaning that peoplecan walk right up to the edge of
the submerged tower, like you mightbe at the same level of the top
windows. You can walk on theice and yeah, and again, same
story, like people were moved fromtheir graves, and you know that sounds
good. Did you happen to lookup if people are like, are ice
skating around this thing? Because thatseems like one hell of an event.
(26:30):
Yeah, I mean it looked kindof like it was ice skatable, but
I didn't. I didn't go anddo it. But amazing and amazing destinations
for maybe like a photographer who wantsto see something different, because a lot
of these Honestly, they're not thatphotograph compared to you know, yeah,
but anyway, super cool like interestinglocation. They look like film set locations.
(26:51):
You know, they're really really awesome. And that kind of leads us
into the lesser known destination of themonth. In season one, episode one
of the Globetrouder's podcast, you mightremember this one because you led that interview
with our guest Will Daverne. Doyou remember the place that he named was
the most eye catching for him?Yes, Lake Bled in Slovenia. Correct,
(27:15):
you get kudos kudo points. SoLake Bloed in Slovenia was his favorite
and most scenic location of the famousIntercontinental car rally that he participated in.
But to locals, Lake Bled isa bit overrated. Undeniably beautiful with its
castle perch the top of the hilloverlooking the lake. However, it can
get a bit overcrowded in tourists theSo what other magical place should you consider
(27:38):
in addition or instead of Lake Bled? Lake Boheinge. While many tourists visit
Lake Bled, a few visit thefew visit the surrounding area. Only a
whopping twenty six kilometers away from LakeBled, you can find this secluded,
pristine and eye catching lake known forits kayaking, hiking, biking, para
(28:00):
gliding, anything you could do outdoors. It's there. Wow, that sounds
really beautiful. And I mean,I know Selenia is kind of an underrated
destination in general. I mean,I wouldn't be surprised if it got really
popular in the near future, kindof like Croatia did recently. It's kind
of like a mini Switzerland almost.Yeah, as you say, yeah,
(28:22):
wow, you yes, you readmy mind because while I was looking at
some of these places that you canhike to and if you have a second,
look up the Lake at the Endof the World and Savica Waterfall.
To be quite frank, I haven'tmet too many people that I've visited Slovenia,
have you No, But it's onmy list, yes, for a
long time. This country has beenat the top of my list of places
(28:45):
to visit in Europe. And youcan be sure I'll not only visit Lake
Blood, but Lake Bohem's as well. Good one. All right, thanks
a lot of water themed and liketower sticking out of the water themed destinations.
You know, we're we're we're recordingin Texas. It's starting to get
hot, so it only it's onlyfitting that we're thinking about visiting pristine waters
(29:07):
that can cool us. Yeah,definitely, all right, Well I think
that's conclude. That should conclude thisepisode. Um. If you want to
find us online, check out ourwebsite at www. Dot GTS dot cot,
www dot gds podcast dot Com atFacebook, Globetrotters Podcasts on Instagram at
(29:30):
Globetrotters Podcasts on Twitter at globetrot pod. Editing on this podcast by Saskia Head
Bunny music on this track by inBlue Collective. You can find their music
on bandcamp and Spotify. Until nexttime
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh and
diverse perspectives from traveling enthusiasts all overthe world. This is the layover our
monthly travel show in which we investigateall things travel, update you on the
latest travel news, and occasionally we'lllook into a questionable trend so you don't
have to Our lesser known destination locationtoday will be a beautiful lake in Slovenia.
(00:38):
Stick around until the end if youwant to hear all about it and
what makes it a lesser known destinationyou should consider for your next zero trip.
I'm your co host John o'taro andI'm Saska have Money. And before
we start, I have to saythat today is a special day because we
are in studio in person. Ifyou've been following us for a while,
you know that that's pretty rare forus. It's great to see you in
(01:00):
person. John, you're in fullHD and I'm also and I'm also a
little nervous. It's kind of weird, but excited to be here in person.
And if you missed our last episode, we spoke with TV anchor and
journalist Danielle Seat, who spent asemester abroad like no other, at least
(01:21):
that I had heard of. Insteadof setting abroad in just one country,
Danielle went to twelve and that's becauseshe spent the entire semester on a floating
campus, basically on a big cruiseliner ship. Twice a year, this
ship embarks on a world tour withsix hundred students aboard along with the crew
(01:41):
and college professors. This opportunity iscalled a Semester at C and it's run
by a nonprofit organization. It claimsto be open to any college student.
So if you want to hear aboutwhat this unique experience was like and how
you can apply, check out thatlast episode. We no you'll enjoy it,
and there is a great episode.Definitely if you're on the fence about
(02:04):
studying abroad, something you should consider. I wish I would have thought about
it when I was back in collegefor that Semester at C program, don't
we all? But in this episode, we're going to talk about visiting the
Lost City of Atlantis. Just kiddingin all seriousness. Today we're going to
talk about some really cool underwater citiesand ruins you can visit as a tourist.
But first we're going to talk aboutsome trending travel news. Last month,
(02:29):
I brought up the fact that theUS government has strongly advised against traveling
to Mexico during spring break due tothe increased threats of crime and kidnapping.
The US list at their highest warninglevels for areas inside of Guerrero, Klima,
Mitakan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, andSacatecas. It sat update to that
story, on the third of March, four Americans were kidnapped by armed men
(02:51):
while driving into the city of Matamoros, which resides in Tamaulipas, Mexico,
across the border with Texas. Twoparish in the kidnapping by gunfire, and
two were found alive and are nowback in the United States. Truly tragic.
You know. Another news, thegovernment in Nepole has banned solo trackers
throughout the country. The decision comesfive years after banning solo adventurers from climbing
(03:14):
Mount Everest. Nampaul is known forbeing home to eight of the tallest mountains
in the world, but it's alsoknown for beautiful trekking regions. So while
the mountaineering industry is one of thecountry's biggest moneymaker, Saskia. The cost
of search and rescue missions for hikersis significant and was a primary reason for
the band. And last, butnot least, I have one that I
think you'll like. Since you're allabout the TikTok trends, we have a
(03:36):
controversial one for you. And thisis a travel hack for booking flights that
may get you a row all toyourself. So I'm really curious to hear
what you have to say about thisone. This has been dubbed as the
poor poor man's first class flight.Essentially, this controversial TikToker books three tickets,
all in the same row, twoof which have been purchased to be
fully refundable, and are canceled fortyfive minutes before the flightparture. This leaves
(04:00):
the entire row of three seats forone passenger to sit back and relax.
I mean, I could see whypeople would be upset about this. My
initial impulse is to say, well, if you're taking seats from that would
otherwise be filled, it's not environmentallyfriendly, kind of not cool. In
(04:20):
case, maybe someone really needed thatflight to be somewhere for you know,
an important event, a death intheir family, like, who knows?
You know, what are the fourarguments? Well, I read through the
comment section and the four was like, Hey, anything to get you a
seat all to yourself. It's asmart travel hack. I think the cons
(04:42):
that you listit are some of themore prevalent ones that I saw while reading
the reviews or comments. There arepeople on standby on most flights that I've
ever traveled on. So if youare one of those individuals that cancel some
of those flights last minute, chancesare you still probably won't get that row
all to yourself. You have tobe extremely lucky. And yeah, I
hope that no stand by passengers geton your row. How do you know
(05:06):
that there are stand by people onyour flight? I don't know that I've
ever noticed that. Oh yeah,and inside every single one of the terminals,
there's screens that are on the boardthat tell you stand by passengers really
has initials or actually like the firstthree letters of I want to say,
the last name and maybe first initialor first letter of your first name.
(05:26):
Yes, so next time you're onthe flight, look all the flights have
of this. Wow. I wastotally oblivious to that. But yeah,
if you're listening, let us know, what do you think about this whole
book? Three seats in a rowand then cancel us. That's what I
think. Yeah, okay, we'rekind of agreeing. Then yeah, but
what do you think? Let usknow. We'll put out a poll on
Instagram too. All right, Sotalking about the lost city of Atlantis,
(05:50):
right, let's get back to that. So I think when a lot of
people here underwater city, they mightautomatically think of Atlantis, which is not
a real place. Let's I thoughtyou were going to say the Disney movie
right now, me too, ninetiesbabies, But yeah, I mean it's
(06:10):
it's not a real place, orat least some people think it is real.
I mean, you know, butthe reality is. And I was
actually kind of surprised to find thisout that there are a lot of underwater
cities or lost cities as people liketo refer to them. And so we're
going to talk about a few ofthose and how they became underwater cities and
how you can visit them. Andthe very first one we're going to talk
(06:33):
about has to do with pirates,a super cool subject. Port Royal in
Jamaica was once the largest city inthe Caribbean, and it was known especially
for its pirates, sex workers,and booze. It was a major trading
port and initially home to privateers.I don't know if you know what.
(06:57):
No, that was going to bemy follow up question, what are privateers?
So privateers were basically hired crew onships that were hired by government to
attack and plunder Spanish treasure ships,at least in that area, because the
Spanish Empire was alive and well,and this was at a time when European
countries did not have the guts basicallyto attack Spain directly. So privateers often
(07:20):
eventually became pirates, probably because theyrealized they could cut out the middleman and
just loot the ships themselves and takeeverything. So Port Royale was a big
location of privateers and so as aresult pirates. It was called the most
wicked and sinful city in the worldand was world famous for its drink of
(07:45):
choice called kill Devil rum, arum so strong that some said it killed
those who drank too much. Youknow, it's interesting because I'm going to
talk about a few cities in citiesunderwater in a little bit, but a
few of them have been dubbed likethe Las Vegas of their times, and
that's kind of what this city alsoreminds me of. So maybe that's why
they're on their water. They're toosinful. Well, it kind of plays
(08:09):
into the legend. So in sixteenninety two, a massive earthquake basically swallowed
the city and the town, whichwas built largely on sand, suffered from
something called liquefaction. Is essentially thewhole town sunk, so buildings, roads,
and citizens were sucked into the ground. Then geysers erupted from the earth
(08:31):
as in like giant No, it'snot it's not fake. I did a
lot of research on this. Buildingscollapsed, and then it was finally hit
by tsunami waves. So whatever hadn'tbeen destroyed was like dragged into the sea,
including the cemetery where Captain Morgan wasburied. So so a lot of
people said, were you know,saying that because it was such a sinful
(08:54):
city, like you know, itwas fate. In the end, fifty
one acres of the city disappeared underwater, two thousand people were killed, three
thousand died of injuries or disease shortlyafter. So yeah, it was a
big event. In Kingston, whichis right next door, basically took over
the role of Port Royal. Soabout today, can you visit it?
(09:18):
And the answer is yes, youcan visit it on a scuba diving or
diving excursion. You need permission fromlocal authorities, but apparently, from what
I understand, that's easy to getthrough just going through a local dive shadows
you would do anyway. But yet, have you looked up any pictures of
this? I did not, Soyeah, I think you gotta paint a
(09:39):
picture for our listeners. Well,I think this is a great moment to
kind of maybe like shatter a fewhearts, because what I found researching these
underwater cities was that a lot ofthe photos were either completely fake, like
digital renderings, or they were misappropriatedfrom other underwater things to make it seem
(10:07):
like that was the actual city's saying. They were ripping off like images of
other places and yes, claiming themas their own. For example, there
are a lot of underwater sculptures.I don't know if you know about this,
but all around the world there areunderwater installations. One of them is
a cemetery underwater created by the NeptuneSociety. Now the Neptune Society is a
(10:31):
cremation company, and they decided theywanted to build this underwater mausoleum. I
guess, and a lot of thepictures that were coming up for Port Royal
were actually of this underwater cemetery.And the way I found this out is
by reverse Google image searching it becauseI was like, I can't figure out
(10:52):
what this archway is, Like it'sbasically an image of a metal archway that's
intact and these stone arches, andyeah, that's just new. Yeah,
And I mean it's a kind ofinteresting that they do this because it's a
good put pun with what you weretalking about. Port Royal is known for
its pirates, for pirrating images offof other locations, right, yeah,
(11:15):
but it happened across the board forall of these cities. So if you're
sitting listening to this right now andgoogling these places, a lot of the
pictures that you're going to see areeither not real or they're from an installation,
like there was one that was astatue of a woman that's often used,
or statues of people underwater, likelots of them, and those are
(11:37):
often art installations and actually not fromthe actual place, the actual Port Royale
there. I mean, they're underwaterruins. And if you think about it,
this was at a time when alot of stuff was built out of
wood, you know, I meanthe event that I just described as catastrophic,
So you can imagine how not muchsurvived, right, And I think
(11:58):
one of the easiest ways to factcheck to see if this is true is
by seeing it with your own eyes. So this very next location is one
that I've personally visited. It's calledthe Sunken City of Baia. It is
spelled two different ways if you areItalian Baia, but it's located near Naples,
Italy or Napuli as they would say, and it's heyday. It was
(12:20):
considered the Las Vegas of its time, as we just talked about, yeah,
with the super rich and elite fromancient Rome vacationing there. So the
city was actually located over volcanic vents, so several spas were actually built over
the natural hot springs that were litteredall over the place in this area.
Do you have you ever heard ofEmperor Nero Cicero and of course Julius Caesar,
(12:43):
who my favorite salad Hopefully listening tothis, but I have a tattoo
of a really famous Julius Caesar sayingveni vidi vici in my left calf.
But people like this, really importantand influential Roman figures were known to frequently
visit, and unfortunately, in theeighth century the city was sacked and by
(13:03):
the fifteen hundreds, it sounds likeall say like because all of these cities
have like such a tragic doom thatit's kind of funny, but not really
especially so far. Both of themare sinful, so like, you know,
so we'll see what happens to Vegasin like five hundred years. But
by the fifteen hundreds the city wasabandoned and overtime the water level slowly rose
(13:26):
and the ancient ruins were drowned bythe shallow bay waters. So today Bay
it can be visited and I'll talka little bit about it. And it's
one of the world's few underwater archaeologicalparks. Wow, that's just a fancy
way of saying. It's an underwaterruins park, right, And visitors can
view the ancient structures and amazingly preservedstatues, which they are perfectly preserved through
(13:48):
glass bottom boats snorkeling or even scubadives which allow people to actually swim amongst
the copious ruins, which is whatI did. And to be real,
I would never ever dissuade anyone fromdoing this or visiting about to get a
candid opinion, but here and youknow it was coming, I would ask
them to manage expectations. These areruins, after all. And I was
(14:13):
really going into it expecting that thiswas going to be equivalent to Disney's,
you know, the City Last Cityof Atlantis. So I was expecting to
like swim where people were cooking andlike using the toilets and stuff like that.
And it's like you see it andit's like, oh, there's a
statue over there. Yeah, andthere's this half destroyed wall where a home
(14:37):
used to be built. And Ithink for me, maybe the crem of
the crop of the entire trip wasthat there was one part where you could
kind of see like a mosaic designand you knew it was ancient or you
know. But aside from that,I didn't. It's probably my fault,
but the expectations were a little bittoo high, So I'm glad I was
(14:58):
there. The water was really warm, and I was dying with the wet
suit on. But that's kind ofmy memory of this archaeological park in Italy.
Yeah, and I have seen picturesof those mosaics and it looks beautiful.
But yeah, it's I mean,was the visibility good because that can
(15:20):
also change, um, you know, this was twenty nineteen, so it's
been four years. I want tosay yes, but it's hard to really
give you an honest answer because thelast few scuba diving trips that I've taken,
the visibility was incredible. So whenit's compared to those last two trips,
no, it wasn't anything like that, but no, it was.
(15:41):
It was rather clear. I wouldsay, clear enough that I have some
awesome pictures that will post up andshow you what that's like. Yeah,
I did see one of those picturesand it looked to me like the visibility
was okay. But like it cantotally. It can change the feeling it
can it can change the feeling ofa play underwater when you're having those really
(16:02):
clear visibility days, like it's it'smagical, you know, So that can
also change the mystique about it.But yeah, I could see people being
underwhelmed. If they're like thinking it'sa lost city. You know, people
love I mean you'll google this andjust see the amount of articles or the
lost city of blah blah blah,and it's just that it's that's misleading.
(16:25):
You know. They are underwater.Yeah, and I think a lot of
a lot of the mystique around itfor me was I mean, now I
probably have a more favorable opinion ofit, knowing that Julius Caesar was once
upon the time stepping where I wasswimming. Yeah, that's kind of cool.
But um, but aside from that, you go check it out yourself.
The jury's out. But I alsowant to mention before we move on
(16:47):
to the next place. You know, in Port Royale, there are tons
of shipwrecks and just in general aroundthe world. So I think shipwrecks are
a really popular you know, divingspot a lot of the time because they're
pretty well preserved, you know,if they've been made out of metal and
all that kind of stuff. Andso that's also a good alternative if you're
(17:08):
looking for, you know, asort of mystical underwater adventure. Yeah,
that's you're trying. Yeah, Butbefore mentioning the name of his next city.
I want to start off with thisquote from archaeologists a really a Mason
Burghoff. It's kind of cool.As an archaeologist, discovering a tomb is
(17:32):
exciting, but it's the tomb ofone individual. Discovering a whole city which
was home to thousands and thousands ofpeople over more than a thousand years.
Well, that's something else. Sofound it around two thousand, seven hundred
years ago. Really put that intocontext. That's just a really long time
ago. It's on the side ofpresent day Abu Kir Bay, fifteen miles
(17:56):
northeast of Alexandria, which is probablya little more famous and I think well
known thoughness Heracleon and I hope Isaid that right predated it's better known neighbor
as the main trading port for theregion by several centuries and was a hub
for international commerce. So it soundslike a lot of these cities once upon
a time where really famous trading ports. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I
(18:18):
mean, and you know, precariouslyperched on the shore that maybe wasn't that
stable. Yeah, you know,there's a reason why we don't tend to
not want to build on in sandyareas. In the modern day, and
like if you're a homeowner, you'llknow what liquefaction is if you live in
like an earthquake zone, right.And so going back to this total mispronunciation
(18:41):
of a city thoughness, Heirocleon wassupposedly, supposedly the place where the Greek
hero Hercules first set foot in Egyptand somewhere where the lovers Paris and Helen
of Troy visited before the Chrojan Wars. So it does have this allure and
mystique of you know, his story, racle figures and mythic heroes. But
(19:03):
one thing I want to say isif you google this place, if you're
listening and you're googling this place,you can see a lot of giants,
statues, pottery, jewelry, wreckedships or shipwrecks, which we just talked
about. And currently there are plansin the works to construct an underwater museum
that would not only allow visitors tosee this place and the sunken treasures it
holds, but also to protect theancient city from pollution and poaching. Interesting,
(19:29):
okay, because a lot of whathappens to these underwater sites is before
they even allow the public there theygo in and they take all the artifacts
out, which is sad because itdoes kind of you know, the artifacts
are part of the history of theplace. So if you take that away,
and what's just a bunch of stackedstones and you know, so I
think that's a really cool idea towant to preserve, you know, the
(19:52):
way that they're that they were found, you know. And naturally you might
be thinking how did this city endup on the ocean floor? And scientists
theorized at a combination of earthquakes,tsunamis, and rising sea levels. Again
here we are, Yeah, atthe end of the second century caused the
ground on which the central island ofHeracleon was built to succumb to soil liquid
(20:17):
faction. Key word of the day. Yes, it's a great word.
I'm not gonna lie. It's terriblelike phenomenon for people who are living on
it. But the word itself,don't you think liquid faction? Like it
sounds like a superpower? Right?Yeah? All right, So that sounds
really cool that out of all theseplaces might be the one that I actually
(20:40):
would go out of my way tovisit. I think because when I googled
the images of this place it wasactually, Oh, you're talking about the
one you were about to mention.No, I'm talking about the one you
mentioned. Okay, I would havegotten to the one you're about to No,
I'm gotten getting there because when Igoogled it, it was the one
with the least fake images to it, as far as I could tell.
(21:03):
But anyway, let's move on.So so far we've talked mostly about naturally
sunken cities, but those aren't theonly underwater places. A lot of places
have actually been flooded in the lastone hundred years to make way for hydroelectric
tric dam projects. By far,the most interesting one is Kindao Lake in
(21:26):
China. It's a lake with athousand islands that was created when a hydroelectric
dam was built in nineteen fifty nine, so not that long ago. The
islands and air quotes are actually justthe tops of what hills once were.
When the valley was flooded, overa thousand villages were were evacuated, so
I think you know, when yousay villages, they could be like little
(21:48):
hamlets and stuff. Thousands of peoplehad to leave. And what makes this
interesting is that at the bottom ofthis lake, under one hundred and thirty
feet of water, which is aboutforty meters. There's a one thousand year
old city called Chi Chang, whichtranslates to the Lion City. Yeah,
and the few images that exist ofthis structure so far are really unbelievable,
(22:14):
intact carvings, statues, and inmany intact buildings. There are almost three
hundred arches still standing between beneath thelake, which is quite unique because all
the sites that we've talked about,remember they you know, have really been
destroyed, degraded by time and bythe disasters that have sunk them. And
(22:37):
a local dive company has been paidpainstakingly three D mapping this site by diving
and taking pictures of it. Youcan visit it, although it's not a
site that it's typically open for tourists, I think partially because I mean,
forty meters is you could do iton an open water patty. But it's
also quite murky, like the abilityis not that good. I watched a
(23:02):
few videos of them documenting the siteand even they were like it's a little
scary, you know, So yeah, and please google this city. I
actually think it's the coolest of thebunch that we're talking about. Today.
So I'm actually a little bit surprisedthat if you had the opportunity to visit
this location, that you wouldn't jumpat the opportunity, because when I look
(23:22):
at pictures of this underwater city,it's the one that most captures my attention
and brings a little bit of whatI thought Atlantis or Italy, the Italy
dive would have been like, yeah, you're one. You're one hundred percent
right about that. I mean,it's it's more intact, and therefore it
would be more interesting I think,And that brings us to another category which
(23:48):
actually you don't need to be adiver to experience. And again, these
are flooded cities, and what theyhave in called with what we were just
talking about is they were created byhydroelectric dams. In fact, this is
a very common occurrence around the world. One of these towns is San Roma
(24:11):
de Sao in Spain. It's aneleventh century village with a church that was
flooded in nineteen sixty five. Ofcourse, the village was evacuated. They
even took the dead out of thecemetery and put them in the new cemetery,
dismantled most of the buildings except forthe church. And so today this
(24:32):
beautiful stone church protrudes from the reservoirswater and it's really stunning, like it
looks beautiful. And even cooler isthat during a drought you can actually walk
around the ruins because they become exposed. There's another one of these in Spain
called Mediano. I mean, they'rejust gorgeous. You can google them and
(24:55):
yeah, really special and beautiful.Yeah, I'm actually googling them as you're
talking about them, so I'm tryingto get a picture in. We'll definitely
post some of these on their storiesso you can get a better idea of
what to expect. But these arethese are stunning. Yeah, And one
of the ones that's really beautiful isin Russia. It's called the It's called
the Kaliazine Bell Tower. The surroundingarea was flooded during the Stalinist era,
(25:19):
again destroying several towns and hamlets.Today, the only above water relic is
the stone Bell Tower, which ispartially submerged most of the most of the
year, but it's also revealed inits entirety on occasion. And it's quite
interesting because a lot of these places, you know, many people were displaced,
a lot of history was erased.Um, you know, you're talking
about ancient cities, and the citieswere often dismantled before they were even flooded.
(25:45):
But one common thing is true forall of them is that the single
thing left left standing is usually havingto do with the church. Um,
maybe there's something to it, youknow. Yeah, And then the very
last one I'll bring up is isa church tower in Italy which was submerged
when three lakes were joined after WorldWar Two. In winter, the lake
(26:07):
can freeze over, meaning that peoplecan walk right up to the edge of
the submerged tower, like you mightbe at the same level of the top
windows. You can walk on theice and yeah, and again, same
story, like people were moved fromtheir graves, and you know that sounds
good. Did you happen to lookup if people are like, are ice
skating around this thing? Because thatseems like one hell of an event.
(26:30):
Yeah, I mean it looked kindof like it was ice skatable, but
I didn't. I didn't go anddo it. But amazing and amazing destinations
for maybe like a photographer who wantsto see something different, because a lot
of these Honestly, they're not thatphotograph compared to you know, yeah,
but anyway, super cool like interestinglocation. They look like film set locations.
(26:51):
You know, they're really really awesome. And that kind of leads us
into the lesser known destination of themonth. In season one, episode one
of the Globetrouder's podcast, you mightremember this one because you led that interview
with our guest Will Daverne. Doyou remember the place that he named was
the most eye catching for him?Yes, Lake Bled in Slovenia. Correct,
(27:15):
you get kudos kudo points. SoLake Bloed in Slovenia was his favorite
and most scenic location of the famousIntercontinental car rally that he participated in.
But to locals, Lake Bled isa bit overrated. Undeniably beautiful with its
castle perch the top of the hilloverlooking the lake. However, it can
get a bit overcrowded in tourists theSo what other magical place should you consider
(27:38):
in addition or instead of Lake Bled? Lake Boheinge. While many tourists visit
Lake Bled, a few visit thefew visit the surrounding area. Only a
whopping twenty six kilometers away from LakeBled, you can find this secluded,
pristine and eye catching lake known forits kayaking, hiking, biking, para
(28:00):
gliding, anything you could do outdoors. It's there. Wow, that sounds
really beautiful. And I mean,I know Selenia is kind of an underrated
destination in general. I mean,I wouldn't be surprised if it got really
popular in the near future, kindof like Croatia did recently. It's kind
of like a mini Switzerland almost.Yeah, as you say, yeah,
(28:22):
wow, you yes, you readmy mind because while I was looking at
some of these places that you canhike to and if you have a second,
look up the Lake at the Endof the World and Savica Waterfall.
To be quite frank, I haven'tmet too many people that I've visited Slovenia,
have you No, But it's onmy list, yes, for a
long time. This country has beenat the top of my list of places
(28:45):
to visit in Europe. And youcan be sure I'll not only visit Lake
Blood, but Lake Bohem's as well. Good one. All right, thanks
a lot of water themed and liketower sticking out of the water themed destinations.
You know, we're we're we're recordingin Texas. It's starting to get
hot, so it only it's onlyfitting that we're thinking about visiting pristine waters
(29:07):
that can cool us. Yeah,definitely, all right, Well I think
that's conclude. That should conclude thisepisode. Um. If you want to
find us online, check out ourwebsite at www. Dot GTS dot cot,
www dot gds podcast dot Com atFacebook, Globetrotters Podcasts on Instagram at
(29:30):
Globetrotters Podcasts on Twitter at globetrot pod. Editing on this podcast by Saskia Head
Bunny music on this track by inBlue Collective. You can find their music
on bandcamp and Spotify. Until nexttime
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