13 Of The World’s Most Fascinating Lost Cities (2 of 3)

Troy, Turkey

While most people still associate Troy with Brad Pitt’s naked bum, it is in fact a lost ancient city that was part of a huge war – aptly named the Trojan War. At first no one was really sure that Troy had ever even existed, but in the late 19^th century an archaeologist found no less than nine Troys, all built on top of each other’s ruins.

Tikal, Guatemala

Tikal is one of the most impressive cities that was built in the Mayan empire. There were, according to archaeological finds, some 10000 individual structures in Tikal, which means that it must have been quite a huge and vibrant place at the time. Sadly, the city gives no further clues as to why the Mayan civilization declined as fast as it did.

Thonis-Heracleion, Egypt

This city was only discovered back in 2000 and the main reason for that is that you can’t reach it without a diving suit. The city was submerged for over a thousand years and despite all the things that have already been found there, its initial discoverer claims that only a small fraction of this lost city has been discovered already.

Xanadu, China

In Chinese, it’s called Shangdu, meaning “Upper Capital.” This was the place where emperors of the Yuan Dynasty would spend their leisure time. The entire place is built according to the principles of Feng Shui, but that didn’t prevent the place getting burnt and sacked in the 14^th century. As the Ming Dynasty took over, Xanadu was completely abandoned in the early 15^th century.