The real Atlantis, which legend says was sunk under the sea 700 years ago to punish drunken locals, has been unearthed for the first time
A LOST city that was once home to 3,000 people and was flooded hundreds of years ago is to be unearthed for the first time.
Dubbed the “Atlantis of the North Sea,” the town of Rungholt in Germany was erased from the map during a medieval flood of epic proportions in the 13th century.
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The former port city is at the center of a legend that says it was flooded as punishment for bad behavior.
Loud locals allegedly got a pig drunk and forced a priest to give him last rites.
And as punishment, the “sinful city” was swallowed up by the sea.
Some say that before Judgment Day the sunken city will rise from the sea and the church tower will ring its bells again.
The true cause of the city’s downfall was a violent storm, yet Rungholt has been shrouded in mystery since its disappearance in 1362.
Now, ten miles off the German coast, archaeologists have begun core sampling and surveying the site.
dr Dennis Wilken from the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel said: “Remains of settlements hidden under the tideland are first localized and mapped over a large area using various geophysical methods such as magnetic gradiometry, electromagnetic induction and seismics.”
Using their high-tech methods, scientists have already discovered a large church, drainage canals and a harbour, a feat of engineering that was astounding for the time.
One of the largest systems of wooden tidal gates in Europe at the time was discovered at the site.
And the townspeople seemed to live a life of luxury, eating shrimp, oysters, waterfowl, eggs, sheep, cattle and grain.
Pottery, metal jewelry and weapons from Spain and Flanders have also been found, suggesting that it was a prosperous trading city.
The citizens of Rungholt lived on artificial hills where they built their houses to protect themselves from the tides.
After a severe storm, the city and surrounding islands submerged, killing thousands and shifting the coastline a whopping 15 miles to the east.
Another town was found underwater off the coast of Wales and is referred to as ‘Cantre’r Gwaelod’ or ‘Sunken Hundred’.
This area is believed It is said to have been a city surrounded by fertile farmland and protected by floodgates.
An old legend has it that the land fell when a priestess named Mererid neglected her duties at the fairy well she was in charge of and allowed it to overflow.
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