- Most Lost Cities are only known to us by their description in works from the Ancient World.
- However, in the last two centuries, several have been found, giving hope that the others may also be discovered.
Lost Cities mentioned in The Bible
Lost Cities and Places referred to in the Ancient World
-
- Agisymba
- Akkad
- Mons Graupius
- Conical Tomb of Alexander the Great
- Dilmun Civilisation
- Fortunate Islands
- Gerrha
- Hanging Gardens of Babylon
- Hesperides
- Hyperborea
- Iram of the Pillars or Ubar
- Kattigara
- Land of Punt
- Lost Tomb of Achilles
- Lost Conical Tomb of Alexander the Great
- Menouthias Islands
- Mountains of the Moon
- Opposite Continent
- Pillars of Hercules
- Rhapta
- Thule
Lost Cities or Lands that have sunk
-
- Atlantis
- Cantre'r Gwaelod
- Dwarka (found 1984-1990)
- Helike
- Kumari Kandam
- Lyonesse
- Muziris
- Ys
Lost Cities that have been Found (in date order)
Lost Rivers
- The Yellow Nile
- This was a fourth Tributary of the Nile that ran from the Ennedi Region in Chad to the Nile above the Qena Bend.
- It dried up 4,500 years ago and became a chain of Oases and lakes, known as Wadi Howar.
- Camel Caravans used this riverbed, known as the ‘Way of the Forty’ from Kobbei in Darfur to the Nile, bypassing the swamps of the Sudd.
- The Seven Branches of the Nile Delta (5 are now defunct)
- From West to East:
-
- Canopic to Alexandria (defunct)
- Bolbitine (Rosetta, still active today)
- Sebennytic (defunct)
- Phatnytic (Damietta, still active today)
- Mendesian (defunct)
- Tanitic (defunct)
- Pelusiac to Pelusium (defunct)
- Grand Erg Oriental
- The Desert Oases in this large Sand Sea in Algeria are fed by any rainfall draining into a dried riverbed known as Wadi Igharghar and its tributaries, which are now underground. The river once flowed from the Ahaggar mountains. The Monsoon retreated south around 4,500 years ago.
- Uzboy River
- This was a distributary of the River Oxus (Amu Darya), which is now a dry river channel.
- It ran for 470 miles (750km) via Sarykamish Lake to the Caspian Sea until the 9th century CE and then again until the 16th century CE.
Lost Languages that have been Deciphered
-
- Phoenician (1758 CE)
- Egyptian Hieroglyphs (1822 CE)
- Cuneiform (1842 CE)
- Linear B (1953 CE)
- Mayan Script (1973-88 CE)
Lost Languages that remain Undeciphered
- China
- Jiahu symbols (c.6000 BCE)
- Banpo symbols (c.4000 BCE)
- Meso-America
- Olmec (c.900 BCE)
- Zapotec (c.500 BCE)
- Asia
- Indus (c.3300-1000 BCE)
- Shankhalipi (c.700-300 BCE)
- Sidetic (c.400-200 BCE)
- Kohi (c.200 BCE-700 CE)
- Middle East
- Elamite (c.3,200 BCE)
- Byblos Script (Byblos c.1700 BCE)
- Greece
- Dispilio Tablet (5,202 BCE)
- Crete
- Linear A (Minoan c. 1800-1450 BCE)
- Phaistos Disc (Minoan c.2000 BCE)
- Scotland
- Pictish Symbol Stones (symbols and Ogham inscriptions c.500-800 CE)