An abandoned village which spent 25 years submerged under water is re-emerging as an unlikely tourist destination.
Inhabitants of lakeside spa resort Epecuen in Argentina were forced to flee their homes in 1985 when rising water levels broke through an earthen dam, slowly sinking the village like a modern day Atlantis.
The Atlantic reports that by 1993, over half the town the town was covered in at least 10 meters (33 feet) of water from Lake Epecuen, which has salt levels only second to the Dead Sea and ten times higher than any ocean.
Epecuen was submerged in salt water 25 years ago
But climate changes saw the waters start to recede in 2009, slowly exposing the remains of the once-thriving town.
Epecuen’s eerie landscape features the jagged, bleached white foundations of former homes, looking not unlike skeletal remains reaching towards the sky.
But rather than staying a ghost town, the village, which once served 20,000 tourists a season, is coming back up for air as a place to visit.
The Argentinian town is re-emerging as a tourist destination after rising from its salty grave
One man who refused to leave and continues to live on the edge of the town told the Associated Press the post-apocalyptic air has made it popular once more.
Pablo Novak, 81, said: Whoever passes nearby cannot go without coming to visit here. It’s getting more people to the area, as they come to see the ruins.”
Former resident and tour guide Norma Berg, 48, told The Mirror: “I had a bunch of cats and dogs, and they ran away a couple days before the flood and I never saw them again.
Epecuen Comes Up For Air
“I think my pets could feel that the water was coming.”
According to the BBC, the town’s old railway station has become a museum where visitors can look back on the town’s spa heyday.
It adds the local tourism authority wants to see Epecuen become an official heritage site.