BY THE ARCHAEOLOGIST EDITOR GROUP

After being flooded in 1959, the Chinese city of Shicheng was left in obscurity. Divers may now explore a 600-year-old metropolis that has been submerged and unseen for decades thanks to its recent rediscovery.

The underwater city of Shicheng, frequently referred to as the "Atlantis of the East" by tourists, is a stunning, enigmatic time capsule of Imperial China. A perfectly preserved piece of stone architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties, which ruled from 1368 to 1912, is located 40 meters beneath Qiandao Lake in Zhejiang province, 400 kilometers south of Shanghai.

Shicheng, which in Mandarin means "Lion City," was purposefully flooded in 1959 to make room for the Xin'an Dam and its adjacent hydropower facility, unlike the legendary Atlantis. For the project, about 300,000 people were evacuated, some of them had families who had been residing in the city for centuries.

As the Chinese government organized an expedition to see what could be left of the long-lost metropolis, the city was "rediscovered" in 2001. When the Chinese National Geography published some previously unseen images and graphics in 2011 speculating how the small city, which measured approximately half a square kilometer, may have appeared in its heyday, interest and exploration surged even further.

Expeditions and underwater images have shown that the city had five entrance gates instead of the usual four, with gates facing the other cardinal directions as well as two in the west. The city's wide alleys include 265 archways with surviving stonework of lions, dragons, phoenixes, and historical inscriptions; the city walls are said to have been constructed in the 16th century. Some of these inscriptions date as far back as 1777.

Shicheng has been beautifully conserved despite being submerged; in fact, the water shields it from wind, rain, and sun degradation. Advanced divers can now take regular dives between April and November with dive companies like Big Blue and Zi Ao Dive Club to get up close to the ruins. The dive is only available to divers with deep water, night, and buoyancy experience because the ruins have not yet been completely mapped.