, Legend Heading
LegendHeading
Sunken City · Qiandao Lake, Zhejiang, China

Shi Cheng, the Lion City

Shi Cheng, the Lion City: still unexplained.

◆ Evidence tier: TraditionFlooded 1959 · 26 to 40 m – present◎ Recently discovered — still growing

The Story

What is claimed · what is sourced · what is still disputed

In 1959 the valley of Shi Cheng was flooded for a dam, and a city founded under the Tang dynasty went under a lake, intact. No surf, no worm, no salt: down in the cold dark the wooden beams still stand, and the carved lions and phoenixes on the gates look freshly cut. Divers drop through black water and land in a Ming street. It is the best-preserved drowned city on earth, and it is barely lit by a torch.

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

The lure: A complete Ming-era city, carved gates and all, in cold dark freshwater

Evidence & Corroboration

Distinct evidence classes that independently agree — never a single score

Historical tradition
Newspaper mention
Scholarly support
Archival evidence
Official map/chart
Corroborated
Verified fact

? Open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.

Historic Maps

Period cartography · Library of Congress & DPLA via IIIF · deep-zoom

◇ No period cartography on file yet. The IIIF map adapters (Library of Congress, David Rumsey, DPLA) fill this automatically when they find charts of this place.

Period Newspaper Coverage

Dated OCR mentions · Chronicling America / loc.gov — a mention proves circulation, nothing more

◇ No dated newspaper coverage yet. Chronicling America runs against this legend automatically and lands dated clips here.

Archival Documents

Manuscripts, government records, company filings · NARA · IIIF · registries

◇ No archival documents on file yet. NARA and national-archive adapters attach primary records here as they surface.

Timeline

Every event source-backed · unsourced events are dropped, never invented

◇ No dated, source-backed events yet. Timeline entries are built only from evidence with a confirmed date -- nothing is estimated or invented.

Sources & Citations

Typed, first-class citations with retrieval provenance

◇ No typed citations compiled yet -- check Historic Maps, Newspapers, and Archives above as they fill in.

From the archive

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