True stories · real terrain · then and now

Places the map lost.

Villages drowned under reservoirs. Land the sea took back. Lakes that dried up within one lifetime. Countries that stopped existing at midnight.

Watch on YouTube The seven series

The Wadden coast, Netherlands. The red line is the Afsluitdijk. In 1932 it closed off the Zuiderzee, and an inland sea became a lake.

Episode 1 thumbnail: a reservoir in red on a relief map, with the words It came back

New episode

Episode 1 · Drought Watch 2026

9 Drowned Places This Year's Drought Gave Back

When the water falls, the past walks back out. Church towers, bridges and whole streets came up out of reservoirs this summer, from Lake Mead to Montenegro. All nine, on the real terrain and in real footage.

EnglishDeutschFrançaisPolski

The atlas

Seven ways a place can vanish

Every country has these stories. Each episode opens one entry in the atlas, says what was there, who decided it had to go, and what is left today.

SERIES 01

Under the Water

Villages and towns drowned for dams and reservoirs, and the droughts that bring them back.

Graun1950Capel Celyn1965Aceredo1992

SERIES 02

Swallowed by the Sea

Coasts falling in now, and the towns and lands the sea already took.

Rungholt1362Port Royal1692Doggerland

SERIES 03

Lakes That Vanished

Seas and lakes drained, diverted or dried out, often within one lifetime.

Aral SeaMoynaqLake Delton2008

SERIES 04

Evacuated & Forbidden

Places emptied by armies, disasters or poison, and closed off ever since.

St Kilda1930Tyneham1943Varosha1974

SERIES 05

Lost Villages of the Past

Medieval and older settlements emptied by plague, famine, sheep or climate.

Eyam1665Wharram PercyCahokia

SERIES 06

Eaten by Mines

Towns dug away, moved, burned or poisoned so something could be taken out of the ground.

Centralia1962Most1975Kiruna

SERIES 07

Countries That Vanished

Whole states that disappeared from the map, shown with then-and-now borders.

Neutral MoresnetPrussia1947East Germany1990

AND NEXT

Yours, maybe.

Many of our topics come from the comments: a church whose graveyard fell into the sea, a village you can only visit a few days a year. Tell us the place you remember.

How it's shown

The map carries the story

Real satellite imagery, the real terrain with the water at its real levels, archive photos and footage of the place as it is now. The voice explains; the map shows you.

Piva Lake in Montenegro as a 3D slab of real terrain, the water 30 metres below its usual level — **The water diorama**The real terrain as a slab, the water rising or draining to its real level, year by year.

Nevada lit up in yellow on a satellite map — **The reveal**The place lights up on the satellite map, before anything is said about it.

Lake Mead traced in cyan with St. Thomas pinned at its northern end — **The lake itself**The water traced in cyan, the drowned town pinned where it stood.

Drone footage of the half-drowned church at Rutland Water with 72.9 percent full — **Real footage, real figures**The place as it is today, with the number that matters counted up.

A level gauge showing Lake Mead at 1,037.6 feet, its lowest since it was filled — **The level gauge**Lake Mead at 1,037.6 feet, the lowest since the lake was filled.

Every episode ends with one question

Did you see it before it vanished?

Many people remember these places: the village before the dam, the road that went down to the old shore. Tell us in the comments under any episode. And if we said a name wrong, tell us how it is really said.

Join the conversation

One map, four voices

The map is the language

Every story is told on the same maps and narrated in your own language.

EnglishPlaces the map lostDrowned, emptied, erased.

DeutschOrte, die die Karte verloren hatVersunken, verlassen, ausgelöscht.

FrançaisLes lieux rayés de la carteEngloutis, vidés, effacés.

PolskiMiejsca, które zniknęły z mapyZatopione, opuszczone, wymazane.

In the works

The Atlas of Vanished Places

Every place from the channel in one book: a then-and-now map for each, what was there, and what is left to visit today.

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