An old submerged town reappears during a drought in the Philippines
Aug 03 2020
NEWSFLARE / AP
A 300-year-old town that was submerged to build a dam in the 1970s was visible again this week after drought caused the water to recede.
A 300-year-old town in the Philippines that was submerged to build a dam in the 1970s is visible again after drought caused the water to recede.
The once-bustling Old Pantabangan town in Nueva Ecija province has not been seen for almost half-a-century.
However, a chronic lack of rain across parts of Southeast Asia has caused water levels in the reservoir to plunge.
Former residents and tourists are now returning to the ruins, while Catholic devotees organised a mass in the old Augustinian Church.
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NEWSFLARE/AP
Old Pantabangan town has not been seen since the 1970s.
Some superstitious residents believe that the emergence of the town is a sign of hope amid the coronavirus pandemic currently ravaging the country - one of the worst-hit in Asia.
Alexander Agustin recorded the video while attending mass with his family and neighbours.
He said: "I grew up in that place. Before it was sunken by the dam, we were forced to evacuate and find another place to live. I am happy to be able to go back there and remember how my life was before the town disappeared below the water.''
Joergen Cruz Mandilag recorded a drone video on July 28. He said people are now starting to flock the old town but everyone has proper permits and are following social distancing during the tour.
Mandilag said: "We usually visited here to take sunrise photographs for years. We are aware about the history of that old sunken town, but we never had a chance to see it before.
"So when the news came that the sunken town was now visible, we decided to see it for ourselves. The opportunity to see a large portion of the old town is very rare. The locals there also said that it may be many years for us to be able to see it again."
The sunken old town is under the picturesque Pantabangan Dam. In the 1970s, the people of this municipality sacrificed their properties to give way to the construction of one of the biggest dams in Southeast Asia.
The old town was submerged but it has irrigated vast tracts of land enabling Nueva Ecija province to prosper and become the biggest producer of rice in the country.
VIDEO
Description
The City in the Sea
by Edgar Allan Poe
(published 1831)
(published 1831)
Lo! Death has reared himself a throne
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently-
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free-
Up domes- up spires- up kingly halls-
Up fanes- up Babylon-like walls-
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers-
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye-
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass-
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea-
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave- there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide-
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow-
The hours are breathing faint and low-
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
In a strange city lying alone
Far down within the dim West,
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best
Have gone to their eternal rest.
There shrines and palaces and towers
(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)
Resemble nothing that is ours.
Around, by lifting winds forgot,
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
No rays from the holy heaven come down
On the long night-time of that town;
But light from out the lurid sea
Streams up the turrets silently-
Gleams up the pinnacles far and free-
Up domes- up spires- up kingly halls-
Up fanes- up Babylon-like walls-
Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers
Of sculptured ivy and stone flowers-
Up many and many a marvellous shrine
Whose wreathed friezes intertwine
The viol, the violet, and the vine.
Resignedly beneath the sky
The melancholy waters lie.
So blend the turrets and shadows there
That all seem pendulous in air,
While from a proud tower in the town
Death looks gigantically down.
There open fanes and gaping graves
Yawn level with the luminous waves;
But not the riches there that lie
In each idol's diamond eye-
Not the gaily-jewelled dead
Tempt the waters from their bed;
For no ripples curl, alas!
Along that wilderness of glass-
No swellings tell that winds may be
Upon some far-off happier sea-
No heavings hint that winds have been
On seas less hideously serene.
But lo, a stir is in the air!
The wave- there is a movement there!
As if the towers had thrust aside,
In slightly sinking, the dull tide-
As if their tops had feebly given
A void within the filmy Heaven.
The waves have now a redder glow-
The hours are breathing faint and low-
And when, amid no earthly moans,
Down, down that town shall settle hence,
Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,
Shall do it reverence.
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