Five Long‑Lost Cities Resurfaced — Rediscovered by Luck, Climate and Technology

Cities rise and fall, and sometimes whole settlements vanish beneath earth, ice, water or dense vegetation — only to reappear decades or centuries later. These five sites were revealed by chance finds, environmental change, and powerful remote‑sensing tools, offering striking windows into how people lived, adapted and hid from threats in the past.

Matiate: a vast subterranean metropolis beneath Midyat, Turkey

In 2020 excavators near Midyat unexpectedly broke into a limestone cave that opened onto a sprawling underground city older than the region's surviving surface churches. The complex, called Matiate, includes dozens of rock‑cut rooms connected by tunnels and areas that were used to store food and wine. Archaeologists recovered coins and human and animal bones, evidence of long‑term habitation. Estimates suggest Matiate could cover roughly 9 million square feet and may once have sheltered tens of thousands of people, though only a fraction has been excavated so far.

Local conservation director Mervan Yavuz says residents retreated below ground to escape climate extremes, enemies, predators and disease, and that the site reflects centuries of religious diversity and co‑existence. Excavation leader Gani Tarkan has said the team aims to uncover more of the city gradually and to make parts accessible to visitors in the future.

Derinkuyu: missing chickens lead to an 18‑level underground city

Derinkuyu, in Cappadocia, was rediscovered in 1963 when a homeowner noticed chickens slipping through a gap in a basement wall. That opening revealed an extensive network of tunnels and chambers descending nearly 280 feet. The carved tuff rock of the region — compacted volcanic ash that is relatively easy to shape — enabled generations to hollow out multi‑level living spaces. Archaeologists have documented ventilation shafts, water wells, storage rooms, stables and other facilities that allowed people to shelter underground for months when necessary.

Some parts of Derinkuyu may date back about 3,000 years, and the site has been connected to accounts from antiquity. At its peak the complex may have sheltered thousands of people; today visitors can explore several excavated levels and see how ancient communities engineered refuge from danger and harsh weather.

St. Thomas: a drowned Nevada town reappears as Lake Mead falls

Lake Mead — the reservoir formed after the Hoover Dam was completed in 1936 — exposed the remains of St. Thomas, Nevada, as prolonged drought lowered the waterline. Mormons founded the town in 1865 and by the late 19th century it supported roughly 500 residents. Rising waters inundated St. Thomas in the 1930s and the last resident departed by boat in 1938. The town has periodically reemerged as Lake Mead's shoreline has shifted, most recently becoming highly visible as water levels dropped in the early 21st century.

Foundations, walls and fragments of everyday life now lie exposed on the lakebed, and the site has become a potent symbol of how climate‑driven water loss can make the past visible again while raising questions about future water security in the Colorado River basin.

Camp Century: Cold War tunnels revealed beneath Greenland’s ice

High‑resolution ice‑penetrating radar captured images in 2024 revealing the buried footprint of Camp Century, a U.S. Army installation built under Greenland's ice in 1959 and abandoned in 1967. Engineers originally constructed tunnels and living spaces below the ice, installing a small nuclear reactor and facilities for dozens of personnel. While the base supported legitimate scientific research such as early ice‑core sampling, it was also associated with a covert military plan to position missiles beneath the ice — a project that was never realized.

Cryospheric scientist Chad Greene described recent radar returns as the clearest images yet of the camp. Warming conditions raise concerns that future ice loss could expose hazardous materials left at the site, including thousands of gallons of contaminated waste, a problem some studies suggest could become significant under certain climate scenarios before the end of the century.

Valeriana: thousands of Maya structures revealed by lidar in Mexico

Open lidar data examined by a graduate student, Luke Auld‑Thomas, revealed a densely occupied Lowland Maya settlement beneath the forest canopy of Campeche, Mexico. Lidar pulses fired from aircraft can penetrate gaps in foliage, mapping ground surfaces hidden to the eye. Analysis uncovered more than 6,700 structures spread across roughly six square miles, including houses, plazas, temple pyramids, a ballcourt, causeways and hydraulic features such as canals and reservoirs.

Researchers named the site Valeriana and estimate it may have supported 30,000–50,000 people between about 750 and 850 CE. So far their knowledge comes from remote mapping; targeted fieldwork and excavation will be needed to confirm dates, recover artifacts and reveal architectural details that lidar cannot detect.

Taken together, these discoveries illustrate different ways the past returns to view: chance encounters, the revealing effects of environmental change, and the power of radar and lidar to map what people once built. Each site adds nuance to our understanding of human resilience, engineering and the choices communities made to survive threats large and small.