SURPRISE ME!

4 Lost Cities to Visit Before You Die

Mikhil Rialch

Last updated: Apr 3, 2017

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‘Time is a flat circle’—Rust Cohle

That’s one of the most enduring quotes from the hugely popular television series True Detective (watch it if you haven’t already). It means that everything that’s happened before will happen again, in an infinitely recurring universe. Mistakes will be repeated, faith in humanity restored, and that which was destroyed will be rebuilt.

On that note, here are some of the most intriguing lost cities of the world:

4. Pompeii (7^th Century BC – 79 AD)

An ancient Roman city set near modern-day Naples in Italy, Pompeii was an important trade route and vacation spot for Romans, with a population of about 11,000. That was until Mt Vesuvius decided to erupt in 79 AD, engulfing the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Described as the ‘wrath of the gods’ by eyewitness Pliny the Younger, the firestorm devoured the city and left behind only ash and molten debris. Pompeii lay buried underneath rubble and forgotten history for about 1500 years until its rediscovery in 1599. Archaeologists found perfectly preserved remains of ancient Roman city life, housing utensils, buildings and people – the remnants of a city caught off-guard, frozen in time.

3. Petra (400 BC – 106 AD)

Also called ‘Rose City’ due to the colour of its rock-cut architecture, Petra was an ancient city situated in modern-day Jordan. Under the Arab tribe called the Nabataens, the city became a highly prosperous mercantile empire. This was until the 4^th century AD when a massive earthquake wracked the city – although many archaeologists claim its decay had begun well before then.

Petra remained unknown to the world until 1812. Now the most popular tourist attraction in Jordan, Petra still preserves the greater part of its mystery. According to archaeologists, around 85 per cent of the city still remains buried, unexplored. The recent discovery of the ‘Petra scrolls’ – 152 papyrus scrolls – is one of the reasons behind its allure. Being the location for an Indiana Jones film is another.

2. Machu Picchu (1450 AD – 1572 AD)

machu picchu lost cities

About 500 years ago, a great homage was paid to the power and glory of the Inca Empire in the form of a city nestled atop a mountain. Barely a century later, the city was abandoned in the face of Spanish invaders who, mercifully, never discovered it. Perfectly preserved and virtually forgotten, it was not until the 20^th century that the great Inca city of Machu Picchu was rediscovered.

Apart from its magnificent location and the air of mystery around it, despite the tourist influx, Machu Picchu, in Peru, stands as a testament to the engineering prowess of the Incas. The great plazas, temples and palaces have been built with cut stone affixed so tightly without the use of mortar that even today its cracks cannot be penetrated with a blade.

1. Chernobyl (1976)

The most recent entry on this list, Chernobyl is also the only city lost on account of a nuclear disaster. On the morning of 26 April 1976, one of the four nuclear stations in Chernobyl exploded, enveloping tens of thousands of miles in northern Ukraine in toxic radiation. The city was evacuated after a tragic delay, in which many of its inhabitants suffered the harmful – and gradually, fatal – effects of nuclear radiation. Today, Chernobyl and nearby Pripyat are ghost cities, open to select visits by tourists. Re-inhabitation remains forbidden to this day. The ghostly Ferris wheel in the Pripyat amusement park serves as a particularly grim reminder of the city’s past, and the fate that befell it.

Cities exude a sense of permanence, an air of enduring through the passage of time. ‘Surely, my city will stand till the end of time,’ we think. Yet who knows, in the distant future, our descendants might point towards the tottering remnants of the Taj Hotel in the ‘lost city’ of Mumbai and say, ‘Daddy, what was that used for?’

Mikhil Rialch

History lover. Wasp hater. World-conqueror-in-waiting.

Comments

Roshal | on 03 July 2015

i love the way you write! especially this one left me with goosebumps, thinking about the number of mysteries that are yet to be unveiled, subject solely to the passage of time . .