- [Narrator] The vast bodies
of water that cover our planet are filled with curious sights. But on the rare occasion
that those water levels drop, some seriously intriguing
things are revealed that often we didn't even know were there. From peculiar remnants
of ancient civilizations to entire lost cities, here are some of the most
mysterious discoveries found under dried bodies of water. (upbeat music)
(mascot screaming) Lord of The Missing Ring. When nine-year-old Caspar
Clarke from Clevedon, England received a metal detector
for Christmas in 2020, he couldn't wait to test it out. So, when his hometown
drained the local lake for its annual cleaning,
Caspar saw an opportunity. With his metal detector in hand, he helped sweep the empty lake for trash and, in his case, treasure. Among the litter on the drained lake bed, Caspar uncovered a broken
GoPro and three rings, which might not seem like much, but Caspar was proud of his loot, and his mom decided to
show it off on Facebook. That's when things got a little crazy. Unbelievably, having
seen the Facebook post, a man came forward to reveal Caspar had found his missing wedding ring. Andy Mitchard, who lost
his ring eight months prior while paddle-boarding on the
lake, couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the Facebook post. With Clevedon lake being
almost 1,000 feet long, Caspar's discovery was extremely lucky, and the chances of Andy
happening upon the Facebook post were even slimmer. While I doubt Caspar was all that thrilled about losing his treasure
when he gave it back, he admitted that it felt good
to make someone else happy, Which, in this case,
was Andy and his wife, who'd been incredibly angry to hear her husband had lost their wedding ring. I guess there are two lessons
we can take away from this. Firstly, maybe buying that metal detector you've been eyeing up
isn't such a bad idea. And secondly, if you wanna keep your loot, you probably shouldn't show
it off on social media. But if you wanna discover
some instant loot of your own, hit those Like and Subscribe buttons so you can uncover the mother
lode of pure entertainment I upload on the reg. Now, back to some more mysterious
dried-water discoveries. (image whooshing) Hidden Ming. In 2012, when the water
levels of Poyang Lake, previously the largest
freshwater lake in China, started to decline, something was revealed that left locals speechless. On the dried-out lake bed,
there lay the remnants of a long, granite structure
with 1,100 curious holes running along its length. The harsh drought conditions, which left China's Jiangxi province without enough water to even fish in, unearthed the strange creation where it ran almost two
miles across the lake bed. But what was this unusual construction? Could it be a failed attempt at building the Great Wall of China? Well, no, not quite. The long stretch of granite
was quickly identified as an ancient bridge. It soon came to be known among locals as the Thousand Eye Bridge, named after those 1,100
holes along its side. But, as it turned out, there
was much more to this bridge than just a few holes. Researchers soon determined that, despite having been hidden for 400 years, the bridge played an important part in the history of the Ming Dynasty. Built in 1631 during the reign
of the last Ming Emperor, Zhu Youjian, the bridge not
only served as a crucial link between the large towns
and local fishing villages; its location also coincidentally
marks the very spot where the first Ming
Emperor achieved victory over the Han clan,
birthing the Ming Dynasty. Not exactly any old footbridge, is it? When it was built, the Thousand
Eye Bridge was considered the longest bridge in China, but despite its excellence, it failed to withstand the power of time. As prolonged rainfall in
the wet summer seasons continued to raise the
lake's water levels, the bridge slowly
disappeared into the depths. Now, droughts have brought the bridge back into the public eye, with visitors traveling
to see the creation which sits partly restored
among mud and shallow puddles. But what do you think? Is the Thousand Eye Bridge really worth the thousands of eyes traveling to see it? (image whooshing) City of Junk. When you think of a junkyard, you probably don't
picture the serene canals that snake their way through Paris. But in 2016, when the Canal Saint-Martin, known best for the wealthy inhabitants that live in its vicinity, was
being drained for a cleaning, a junkyard is exactly what was revealed. Curious crowds gathered
on the arched footbridges to get a good look at the oddities poking out of the sludge below. And, as you'll soon see, it was a real treasure trove of trash. To drain the canal, the
water was first redirected to the River Seine before dozens of workers
waded through the mud to rescue and remove any leftover fish. Then, the real work began. As the cleaning progressed, all kinds of strange and ridiculous items were dredged from the water. Of course, there was the
standard stuff you'd expect, beer bottles, shell-covered
bicycles, and so on, but a few larger items took
a turn for the bizarre. Before long, cleaning
crews happened upon mopeds, toilets, mattresses, and
full porcelain bathtubs that had to be dragged away with tractors. You've gotta wonder, who
thought their bathtub would look better at
the bottom of a canal? There was even a vintage
camera and an old boombox, presumably dropped by
individuals now lost to history. While each of these strange
canal-dwelling objects undoubtedly had a fascinating story behind their presence there, most of them will remain
a mystery forever. (image whooshing) The Real-Life Excalibur. In the summer of 2018,
eight-year-old Saga Vanecek went on a family vacation
to Vidostern Lake in southern Sweden. Having been the hottest
summer in 260 years, evaporation had left the
lake extremely shallow, allowing Saga to wade out further
than people usually could. While wading along, she stumbled upon what
she thought was a stick, but turned out to be something
much more spectacular. The object, long, crooked
and caked with mud, quickly revealed itself
to be a rusted blade attached to a handle. Saga quickly realized she'd
found herself something amazing: a genuine ancient sword. When Saga shared her
finding with her old man, he immediately got in
contact with a local museum, and the sword was soon established to be over 1,500 years old, meaning it actually pre-dates the Vikings. Being the first of its
kind ever found in Sweden, experts were left wondering who the sword might've belonged to. Did some unfortunate,
ancient sailor fall overboard or through the ice during a winter trek? Or was a wealthy noble
buried somewhere in the lake with their most cherished possessions? Either theory could be true seeing as, when the museum carried
out further excavations, they found a valuable
brooch from the 3rd century in the same area. While more information
is likely to be revealed as further excavations take place, people have since begun
jokingly dubbing Saga as Sweden's modern-day King Arthur. Why? Well, in variations of
the legend of King Arthur, the brave hero receives the
powerful sword Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Obviously, there was no mystical
lady involved this time, and Saga won't really be
crowned any time soon, but who needs a crown when you've found the real-life Excalibur? (image whooshing) Buried Giants. Not all discoveries made
under dried bodies of water are quite so easily handheld as a sword. The citizens of Arasinakere, a village near the city
of Mysore in India, uncovered something huge in 2019. In a joint effort, the villagers unearthed two enormous sandstone
statues buried face-to-face below a dry lake bed. The mysterious bull-shaped
creations were soon identified as carvings of Nandi, the sacred gatekeeping bull of Hinduism. The statues are usually found in front of the Hindu deity
Shiva in Indian temples, so to find them buried under a dried lake was certainly unusual, but not as impossible as
it may initially seem. According to local experts, the dried lake was actually the site of a sacred Shiva temple from as early as the 16th century A.D., right up until the early 1900s. In that period, many people are thought to have traveled to see it, including Maharaja
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, then-ruler of the state
of Mysore in the 1940s. Only, when he arrived, he
found the temple submerged in gradually-rising waters. It's said that the Maharaja
spent weeks trying to retrieve the Nandi statues and other
remnants of the temple before he eventually gave up and left, leaving his prayers with
the underwater temple and its gatekeepers. While the cause of the temple's submersion was never recorded, as years passed, either through rising
waters, sinking into the mud, or possibly even intentional burial, the temple and its statues
disappeared beneath the water. That said, villagers did
occasionally spot the heads of the Nandi sticking out on drier years when the water level dipped. But it was only after a
particularly grueling summer that the lake dried up entirely, and some curious residents
decided to dig a little deeper. For now, both the Nandi
remain in the ground as archeologists plan the next step for their research and conservation. Hopefully, they don't
also give up and leave like the Maharaja did. (image whooshing) Turned to Stone. Tanzania's Lake Natron is
a truly otherworldly place. Its incredibly alkaline
water makes for some effects that are both intriguing
and a little disturbing. Arguably, the strangest of these effects are the ashy, mummified animals
lining the lake's banks. At first glance, you
may think Medusa herself had paid the lake a visit, but there's actually something
equally strange going on. Since water flows into the lake, but only escapes by evaporation, high levels of salt tend to
build up in the lake water. These extreme conditions
make it almost impossible for most animals to live in, and because of this, it's only home to a single species of
fish, some flamingos, and the algae they feed on. Any other creatures who try
to make the lake their home all tend to suffer the same terrible fate: they turn to stone. At least, that's what it looks like. In reality, dead animals
that fall into the water are fantastically preserved by the salts that leach into their flesh. As water evaporates in
the hot summer months, the revealed remains are
coated in another layer of salt that leaves them looking
like white statues littering the crimson banks. And as for that odd
crimson hue of the lake, this is caused by the
presence of haloarchaea, a special type of
red-pigmented microorganism that flourishes in extremely salty water. Altogether, with bloody-looking water and animals turned to stone, the whole lake looks like
something out of a mythical war. But that wouldn't put me off visiting. Would it you? Let me know
in the comments below. (image whooshing) The Desert's Lost City. We've all heard of Atlantis,
the ancient sunken city. Sadly, no one has found
any overwhelming proof that it really existed yet, but that doesn't mean there
aren't other real cities with similar stories. A particularly intriguing
location of this kind can be found in the Aral Sea between Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan, or what's left of it. You see, the Aral Sea
dried out almost completely in the decades following the early 1960s, when Soviet government plans
diverted the main rivers that fed it to irrigate
the surrounding desert for cotton production. With an area more than
double the size of Belgium eventually left as dry desert, it was almost inevitable
that something fascinating would appear sooner or later. And, boy, did it. In 2001, when archeologists were scouring the dry wasteland, they
happened upon something they first thought was nothing more than a heap of dry ruins, but soon turned out to
be a lost settlement from the 14th century. The site, now known as Aral-Asar, was once a bustling community whose economy thrived on
trade from the Silk Road. The presence of other
similar sites in the area suggest Aral-Asar may even have been part of a wider, expansive city. However, the clues left behind by the settlement's
inhabitants told an odd and tragic story. Several household items like
millstones and ceramic vessels had been left in place, seemingly having been
abandoned in a hurry. The reason for this, while
uncertain, was likely due to a sudden, natural
rise in the water level of the Aral Sea at the time, which may have occurred too quickly to allow the people to properly escape. But there was more than
just a tragic upheaval that made Aral-Asar such
a fascinating discovery. Aside from the city's ruins, archeologists also found
the remains of rice fields and a crock with agricultural tools in it. While those might not seem
like the most unusual findings, they're actually pretty darn puzzling. Why? Well, the 14th century
Central Asian population was previously thought to have led a mostly nomadic lifestyle, and their only type of farming was thought to be cattle breeding. But the discovery of both cultivated land and the tools to tend to it
is now forcing archeologists to re-evaluate their understanding
of Central Asian history. And all because those wacky Soviets turned a sea into a desert. (image whooshing) Meteor in the Lake. In 2015, Australian researchers recovered something incredible from a dried-out area that was imminently about
to be covered with water. The researchers found themselves
in a race against time after stellar observation cameras stationed in the central Australian desert captured the thrilling
sight of a meteorite falling from the sky. It started as a greenish streak of light burning through the atmosphere, and after six seconds of
soaring through the air, it crashed in the middle
of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. The lake is almost completely
empty for most of the year as its water is evaporated
by the desert heat. However, when the meteorite touched down, heavy rains were rapidly filling
the lake's expansive basin, and quickly-rising water
levels were threatening to swallow up the meteorite, which would've made it
almost impossible to find. A team from Curtin University
worked tirelessly to find it, narrowing the possible area down using data from the cameras, but eventually, they uncovered it. The team leader and planetary geologist Professor Phil Bland
hand-dug the meteorite from a deep hole in a remote
section of the lake bed before water was able to submerge it. The recovery allowed
researchers to determine which parent asteroid
it might've come from. And it came from really far away. The meteor, dated at upwards
of 4.5 billion years old, possibly even older than the Earth, is believed to have originated
from a much larger asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. Impressive stats, sure, but what makes this find even more amazing is the fact that mere
hours after their discovery the entire area was flooded. Talk about being at the right
place at the right time. (image whooshing) Underwater Stonehenge. In 2019, a drought exposed a
strange arrangement of rocks under a manmade lake in western Spain. But they weren't just any old rocks. It was clear that these hadn't fallen into place by accident; they'd clearly been placed by human hands. Consisting of about 150 standing stones meticulously arranged
around a central oval, the structure was soon nicknamed
the "Spanish Stonehenge." Amazingly, research
indicates the monument, officially known as the
Dolmen of Guadalperal, is over 7,000 years old. While we know little about who
was responsible for the site, the stones are thought
to have once been part of an enclosed structure
with a large stone cap forming a roof, and was
possibly used as a tomb, trading site, or sacred ritual area. But the question is, how did such a clearly
significant historic site end up in the middle of a lake? Well, as strange as it seems, this isn't the first time
people have discovered the Spanish Stonehenge. The structure had actually
already been excavated in the 1920s by a German archeologist, but the construction of a
manmade lake in the area was authorized regardless in 1963, and the structure was
subsequently submerged for almost 60 years. At the time of its construction, the lake was deemed more
important that the ruins, seeing as it would be the
home to a hydroelectric dam that continues to generate power today. But what do you think? Should a sacred ancient site
have been enough of a reason to stop construction of a dam in the area? Let me know in the comments below. (image clicking) (image whooshing) Skeleton Lake. During the winter, Roopkund
Lake in the Himalayan mountains is an ice skater's paradise. But when the sun comes out in the summer, so too does something
pretty darn terrifying. No, it's not the great Yeti himself, but it's almost as unnerving. Each summer, hundreds of skeletons float to the surface of the lake, having been trapped in ice
for the rest of the year. This makes the lake not
only popular among tourists, but also knowledge-thirsty researchers who all want to get to
the bottom of things. While the origins of the
skeletons are unclear, a long-standing theory
suggested that the victims all died simultaneously
in a catastrophic event more than 1,000 years ago. However, recent genetic analysis suggests that many of the remains aren't actually from the same time period,
but instead, accumulated there over the course of a whole millennium. Only fifteen of the skeletons
share genetic similarities associated with Southern
Asians from the 9th century, whereas the rest pointed to genetic groups from more than 1,000 years later. Strangely, researchers found
that 14 of the skeletons possessed eastern Mediterranean ancestry, meaning the deceased
had, for unknown reasons, traveled all the way from
somewhere like Greece or Lebanon to the Himalayas. Considering they probably
weren't on a skiing vacation, it's pretty baffling, right? Well, that's not all. Five of the skeletal
samples showed peculiar, unhealed compression fractures, which researchers have suggested
may have been inflicted by gigantic hailstones during
some kind of killer storm. As strange as that is, it would only explain a
small fraction of the remains found in Roopkund Lake, leaving the rest open to speculation. Some of the remains might've been migrants seeking new places to settle, or may even be the bodies
of the already-dead brought to the peaceful
site for a sacred burial. Or maybe they were ill-fated explorers, driven by a desire to see a
spectacular mountain range, killed by their own
curiosity or carelessness. For now, the answer remains
shrouded in mystery. (image whooshing) Godly Bronze Mask. At around 700 feet below sea level, Israel's Sea of Galilee is
the lowest freshwater lake in the world. But even though its fed
by the Jordan River, Israel's increasing drought conditions are causing the lake
to continuously shrink. But, as we've seen, where lakes dry up, archeologists tend to
lay down their shovels. Luckily, they're often
proven right in doing so. In 2015, an archaeological dig in the vicinity of the Sea
of Galilee unearthed a large, slightly creepy, ancient bronze mask. The mask was found just outside the limits of the ancient Greco-Roman city of Hippos, and its purpose initially
left experts stumped. However, once the mask had
been polished a little, removing what proved to be around 2,000 years worth of grime, experts on Ancient Greek
gods quickly realized who the mask represented. It turned out, the mask,
with its two small horns, pointed ears, and a beard, bore the likeness of the
half-man, half-goat deity Pan. In ancient Greek mythology, Pan is the god of music
and the wilderness, and he's often associated
with hunting and pasturelands. Given these associations, it's likely that the mask was left there after some kind of ceremony, or possibly as a token of
luck to ensure a good harvest. Those who worshiped Pan
are known to have done so through everything from
drinking and sacrificing, to rituals involving all
kinds of naughty behavior, if you catch my drift. This means, in all
likelihood, that mask has, well, let's just say,
seen some crazy stuff. Still, it'd certainly make
a great conversation starter at your next party, or ritual. (image whooshing) Headless Statue. As strange as it might've
been for the finders of the Pan mask to discover a metal head staring back at them in the dirt, it might be just as strange
to find an intact statue without a head. That's exactly what happened
in Lopburi, Thailand in 2019 when a 150-year-old
Buddhist temple emerged after spending 20 years underwater. The temple, like its surrounding village, was completely submerged in 1999 when a dam was built around it. Over 500 houses were
demolished during construction, but because the temple
was considered sacred, it remained untouched and was left to exist
in its new watery home. When it suddenly reappeared
after a serious drought in 2019, thousands of tourists came
to pray and to place flowers, but were surprised to find
a central piece missing: the head of the central
13-foot Buddha statue resting in the sand. With its head likely
having broken off somewhere over the 20 years it spent submerged, archeologists have suggested, sadly, that it's probably too
late to find it now. Whether it was eroded into
tiny pieces by water currents or stolen by a fish with
a penchant for vandalism, its current condition and whereabouts will likely remain unknown. Tragic, sure, but we
all know a certain Pan who just so happens to be
on the lookout for a body. Jokes aside, the temple once served as a popular meeting place
for people in the community. From celebrating religious
ceremonies to casual hangouts, the Wat Nong Bua Yai
temple has a special place in many hearts, meaning its re-emergence, even with a missing head,
was warmly received. But, unfortunately, with
the drought easing up, it's likely the temple will
soon be returning underwater. That being said, all hope may not be lost because, like we've seen
throughout this video, when something goes under,
it often comes back up again. Have you ever made a mysterious discovery under a dried body of water? Let me know in the comments below. And thanks for watching. (upbeat music)
