Swallowed by the sea: incredible places falling victim to the waves

Teetering on the brink

Humans have long been fascinated and frightened by the beauty and power of our oceans – but some communities feel its force more than others. Here we take a look at historic villages that have fallen prey to the waves and current communities that are heading in the same direction, plus natural and man-made landmarks at risk from rising sea levels.

From England's Tintagel Castle to the Indonesian capital, read on to see the places around the world that have been – or are about to be – swallowed by the sea...

Dunwich, Suffolk, England, UK

Once the capital of the Kingdom of the Eastern Angles, Dunwich today is a pretty but insignificant settlement on the Suffolk coast. In 1086 it was mentioned in the Domesday Book as having a population of 3,000 and three churches, while in the 14th century, it was nearly as large as London. But the rich medieval town succumbed to the rigours of the North Sea as coastal erosion and storms took their toll. Pictured here in 1908 are the ruins of All Saints Church, sitting perilously close to the cliff edge.

Dunwich, Suffolk, England, UK

It's thought that two great storms whipped through Dunwich in the 1280s and the 1320s, wrecking the trading town’s harbour and starting its decline. Archaeological research has found ruined buildings on the seabed, including the remains of churches and a toll house. All Saints Church was the last of Dunwich’s ancient churches left standing. It was abandoned to the elements in the 1750s and finally succumbed to the crumbling coastline in the 1920s when the last of its ruins fell.

Tangier Island, Virginia, USA

This tiny, marshy island in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay has long felt the ocean's power. Tangier has lost about two-thirds of its land since 1850, and climate change is accelerating its seemingly inevitable fate. Home to a soft-shell crab and oyster fishing industry, Tangier is sinking into the waves and facing down storm-driven erosion and rising sea levels. Pictured here are the remains of a cemetery washed away by the encroaching tides.

Tangier Island, Virginia, USA

Discussions are ongoing about how to save the island – and, crucially, how to secure the necessary funding. Officials are combing through a range of possible solutions, from large-scale coastal engineering projects to nature-based solutions, such as protecting the shoreline with marshy wetlands that soak up the sea's power. If things continue as they are, much of the rest of the island will vanish in the next 50 years.

London Arch, Victoria, Australia

The London Arch is one of many striking rock formations that can be seen along the sweep of Australia's magnificent Great Ocean Road. The much-photographed landmark used to be known as London Bridge until the rock connecting it to the mainland collapsed into the Southern Ocean in 1990. Two terrified tourists were left stranded on the remaining stack as the strong waves lashed below, until they were rescued by helicopter hours later.

London Arch, Victoria, Australia

Now cut off from the mainland, the natural arch in the Port Campbell National Park remains a popular tourist spot, although it can now be appreciated from a pair of nearby viewing platforms. The waves have carved out unique formations all along this striking section of the Aussie coastline, and continue to change the shape of the limestone and sandstone cliffs.

Hallsands, Devon, England, UK

Another of Britain’s lost seaside villages is Hallsands in southern Devon, and you can still see the scant remains of the little but lively fishing village that once sat on a perilous spot between the cliffs and the sea. In 1891 it boasted 37 houses, a pub called the London Inn and 159 residents, most of whom owned their own homes. In that same decade, the Admiralty approved dredging shingle from the nearby coast, ignoring the protestations of villagers who warned that their lives could be put in danger.

Hallsands, Devon, England, UK

The beach began to fall into the sea and in 1902 the dredging license was revoked, but it was too late. Judgement day came on 26 January 1917, when a severe storm swept the entire village into the sea. Only one house was spared – still used as a holiday home today – but miraculously all the villagers were successfully evacuated. They had lost everything, and the fight for compensation took seven long years.

Rattray, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK

It wasn’t the waves that sealed the fate of Rattray, but shifting sands. Granted royal burgh status by Mary Queen of Scots in 1564, the settlement of Old Rattray, which lies between Peterhead and Fraserburgh, was centred around its castle and harbour. A great gale in 1720 saw the village consumed by the coastal dunes, and only the ruins of the 13th-century St Mary's Chapel (pictured) remain above ground today.

Rattray, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK

In 1795, the Rattray Estate built a new fishing village in the hopes of reviving the community, but the new town – named Botany after the then-new penal colony of Botany Bay in Australia – still had to contend with the area's brutal climate and quickly faltered. Pictured here is Rattray Head Lighthouse, immersed in the sea at high tide, just beyond that sands that now cover Old Rattray.

West Pier, Brighton, England, UK

Brighton’s West Pier opened to great fanfare in 1866 during the Victorian boom for beach holidays. An archetypal example of UK seaside architecture, the pier was added to over the years and in its prime featured a concert hall, funfair and tearoom. It was extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and became a much-loved landmark on the Brighton seafront. The West Pier fell into financial decline in the 1960s, before closing in 1975 and falling into disrepair.

West Pier, Brighton, England, UK

After decades of being pounded by the waves, the crumbling structure succumbed to heavy seas and strong winds in 2002, as a walkway collapsed and felled part of the concert hall. The remains of the once iconic pier caught fire the following year (arson was suspected). Part of the derelict structure's eastern side then crumbled into the sea in 2013 following winter storms. However, what remains of the evocative ruins still form a striking landmark on the seafront.

Twelve Apostles, Victoria, Australia

In 2005, a crowd of onlookers were given a timely reminder of the sheer power of the Southern Ocean when one of the Great Ocean Road's most famous rock formations collapsed seemingly without warning. Sending sand and spray flying in all directions, the pillar was one of the so-called Twelve Apostles – ancient and giant limestone formations – and its demise brought the number of surviving apostles from nine down to eight. Here is the landmark prior to its collapse.

Twelve Apostles, Victoria, Australia

There never were 12 apostles – including the eight surviving structures, there are actually more than 30 formations along that stretch of coast – and the 20-million-year-old stacks were once cavernous caves in the soft cliff, carved out by waves and wind. They became arches before eventually collapsing into the towering pillars we see today, cut off from the mainland. The other apostles will also eventually collapse, but stunning new pillars will also form.

Canvey Island, Essex, England, UK

In what was one of the UK's worst natural disasters, a huge storm surge swamped coastal towns in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent, as well as Scotland, in the winter of 1953. Canvey Island, a low-lying island on the north shore of the Thames estuary, was among the worst hit by the so-called Great North Sea Flood. Pictured here is the seaside resort, which was hugely popular for beachgoers in the first half of the 20th century, in 1925.

Canvey Island, Essex, England, UK

The storm and resulting surge that struck the UK, the Netherlands and Germany on 31 January 1953, overwhelmed the estuary island’s sea defences. Around 13,000 people were evacuated from their homes and 59 people were killed. A sturdy sea wall was later built to defend the island's scarred community from the sea. But with parts of the reclaimed estuary island lying below sea level and the North Sea rising due to climate change, it remains vulnerable to tidal flooding.

Statue of Liberty, New York City, New York, USA

According to UNESCO, the Statue of Liberty, America’s longstanding symbol of freedom in New York Harbor, could fall victim to the rising sea. A 2016 report recounted how, in October 2012, floodwaters from Hurricane Sandy submerged three-quarters of Liberty Island and almost all of Ellis Island. Although the iconic statue itself was not damaged, storm surges severely hit the historic site's infrastructure, including its docks which were completely destroyed.

Statue of Liberty, New York City, New York, USA

In the future, the report suggests, it might not be so lucky, and the landmark is "at considerable risk from some of the impacts of climate change", such as rising sea levels, storm surges and increased storm intensity. Sea levels do not rise evenly everywhere, and the sea on America's East Coast is among the fastest-rising water in the world. The moai statues of Easter Island were also singled out in the report as being particularly at risk.

Fairbourne, Wales, UK

Backed by Snowdonia and lashed by the Irish Sea, the coastal community of Fairbourne on the west coast of Wales will probably disappear beneath the waves within the lifetimes of some of its current residents. The local council has said it can no longer sustainably defend the village and will not invest in sea defences beyond 2050, instead putting the money into 'managed realignment' and the relocation of its inhabitants.

Fairbourne, Wales, UK

At spring tide the village already lies below sea level, and it's threatened by flooding from three directions – from the sea, from a nearby estuary and from a nearby river. In 2014, local authorities said they planned to 'decommission' the village by eventually demolishing it and returning the land to the marshes, leading some in the media to label its residents 'Britain's first climate refugees'. Many locals rejected the label and declared their intention to stay and save the village.

Jakarta, Indonesia

Indonesia’s enormous capital – home to around 10 million people – is the fastest-sinking city in the world. Over the last 25 years, the hardest-hit areas have subsided more than 16 feet (5m), and about 40% of the city now lies beneath the level of the ocean. Throw in rising sea levels and it's predicted that, without major action, parts of the city could be 95% submerged by 2050. Pictured here is an abandoned and flooded mosque that was built before the defensive walls were constructed.

Jakarta, Indonesia

The problem is so severe that the Indonesian government is currently building a brand-new capital city, Nusantara, in Kalimantan province to the east. Part of the issue is that many of Jakarta's residents lack access to running water, so they rely instead on thousands of illegal wells that weaken the ground beneath the streets. A new plan aims to deliver water to every Jakarta household, and it may be the city's last chance.

Azure Window, Gozo, Malta

This picture-perfect limestone arch, known as the Azure Window, was until recently one of Malta’s top tourist spots, and featured in numerous films and TV shows including Clash of the Titans (1981), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and Game of Thrones. The truly spectacular sea arch, near Dwejra Bay on the gorgeous island of Gozo, was shaped by centuries of natural coastal erosion.

Azure Window, Gozo, Malta

Sadly in March 2017 heavy storms hit the Maltese archipelago, and the striking rock formation, also known as Tieqa tad-Dwejra, collapsed into the rough seas. A study in 2013 said that, although erosion was occurring and would inevitably continue to occur, the formation was not in imminent danger of collapse. The site still draws tourists who can now scuba dive to see its submerged boulders beneath the waves.

Porthcothan Bay, Cornwall, England, UK

Just a few years before the Azure Window splashed to earth, this age-old rock arch in Porthcothan Bay, near Newquay in Cornwall, was reduced to rubble after being battered by huge waves during a winter storm in 2014. The surf beach’s beloved stone archway, known locally as 'The Anchor' or 'Jan Leverton's Rock', was a landmark on the Cornish coast but could not withstand the 30-foot-high (9m) waves and 70-miles-per-hour (113km/h) winds.

Porthcothan Bay, Cornwall, England, UK

The violent winter storms of 2014, some of the worst to hit Britain in decades, damaged not only Porthcothan Bay but also other areas of the British coastline, including parts of the UNESCO-listed Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Sections of Chesil Beach were lost and the 150-million-year-old Pom Pom Rock, a stack formation on the southern edge of Portland, also collapsed during the bad weather.

Burton Bradstock, Dorset, England, UK

The 95-mile (153km) stretch of coast that runs from Dorset to Devon, known as the Jurassic Coast, is one of Britain’s most amazing natural wonders. Its dramatic cliffs, secluded coves, coastal stacks and barrier beaches record 185 million years of Earth’s history. Famed for unique rock formations such as Old Harry Rocks and Durdle Door, and the high cliffs of Burton Bradstock and West Bay, this wild landscape was formed by erosion and will continue to drastically change shape in the coming decades.

Burton Bradstock, Dorset, England, UK

Pictured here is a cliff fall at Burton Bradstock, a stunning red cliff-backed beach in Dorset, caused by coastal erosion in March 2020. Landslides are common along the coastline and pose a very real danger to people on the sands below. Climate change will make the UNESCO World Heritage Site and its communities more vulnerable to the rising sea, with more frequent cliff collapses and beach floods predicted.

Pacifica, California, USA

California’s stunning coastline is slowly crumbling into the sea as numerous cliff collapses, landslides and floods change its shape dramatically year on year. Pictured here is the city of Pacifica near San Francisco in 2016 after storms and powerful waves, caused by the El Nino weather pattern, ate away at its beaches and coastal bluffs. Homes, roads and infrastructure all now sit perilously close to unstable cliffs, and the situation has to be constantly monitored.

Pacifica, California, USA

The 2016 storms in particular saw evacuations along the seafront, and a number of properties were deemed uninhabitable. In this image demolition crews destroy a Pacifica apartment building that had been marked unsafe for habitation. The situation is only getting worse, and in 2018 the owners of a seaside property paid an enormous fine for failing to maintain a seawall and public stairway that was pummelled by storms and eventually collapsed.

Soulac-sur-Mer, Gironde, France

With its pine-backed beaches, coastal dunes and famous surf waves, France’s Atlantic coast is a popular seaside spot. And when the Signal Building (pictured) was built in the 1960s, in the seaside oasis of Soulac-sur-Mer, it was more than 650 feet (200m) from the ocean. By 2019, acute coastal erosion meant that the 80-flat apartment building found itself just 32 feet (10m) from the waves. Its residents had already evacuated – the local government began moving them in 2014.

Soulac-sur-Mer, Gironde, France

In February 2023, with the waves at the door, the building's empty bulk was finally demolished, after crews finished removing the last of its asbestos. In France, the building has become symbolic of the challenges posed by rising sea levels, as the waves claimed its beach at a staggering eight feet (2.5m) a year. Is history repeating itself? A settlement here was engulfed by the waves way back in AD 580.

Orfordness Lighthouse, Suffolk, England, UK

One historic lighthouse doomed by the relentlessness of the North Sea was the Grade II-listed Orfordness Lighthouse in Suffolk, England. The classic red and white lighthouse was built in 1792 and decommissioned in 2013. In 2005 it lay 65 feet (20m) from the shoreline, but by 2015 just 32 feet (10m) separated it from the waves. In 2019 a storm caused its engineer's bunkhouse to collapse, and authorities decided that the writing was on the wall.

Orfordness Lighthouse, Suffolk, England, UK

After 200 years guarding the Suffolk coast, the 11th lighthouse to do the job, the Orfordness Lighthouse was torn down by a demolition crew in August 2020. Proprietors had tried to protect the building with large 'sausages' – lines of oblong sacks filled with shingle and rubble – but to no avail. Several artefacts from the lighthouse were saved from demolition, including the lantern room, the curved cabinets used to hold lighthouse bulbs and the large stone above the door.

Kivalina, Alaska, USA

In Alaska, parts of the ancestral lands of the Inupiat are at dreadful risk. The cause of the problem is the loss of the sea ice that usually protects the shores of the remote village of Kivalina from storm surges and coastal erosion. Now homes teeter perilously close to the water’s edge on a narrow spit of land, with nothing to shield them from the rising tide. The sea ice is melting earlier in the season each year, which also makes it less safe for villagers to hunt and fish – integral to their culture and survival.

Kivalina, Alaska, USA

The village's position is so precarious that the relocation of its population has been discussed since the 1990s, but climate change is melting sea ice at an ever-faster rate and the conversation is becoming more urgent. There is no way to safely leave the island during a storm, and plans for an evacuation road have been in the pipeline for some time. Everyone knows that the town needs to move to a new site – the problem is how exactly to do that.

Skara Brae, Orkney, Scotland, UK

Skara Brae was originally uncovered by a storm, and it could be a storm that sees the archaeological site reclaimed once more by the waves. The small Neolithic farming community in Scotland's Orkney archipelago dates back around 5,000 years, and was lost to history after powerful storms buried its stone remains beneath water and sand. In 1850, another powerful storm tore into the island's coastal dunes while high tides stripped the grass from a large mound, revealing Skara Brae once more.

Skara Brae, Orkney, Scotland, UK

Today, those same storms make Skara Brae one of Scotland's most at-risk historic sites. Protecting the current site is of course the main aim, but archaeologists are also conscious that coastal erosion could eat into underground treasures that haven't yet been discovered. A sturdy 13-foot-tall (4m) seawall now sits at the base of the site to protect its storied stones from spray. The first such wall was put up in the 1920s, and the situation is still closely monitored.

Hoi An, Vietnam

Some of central Vietnam's most beautiful coastal towns and beaches are in danger of disappearing. Rising seas and erosion have caused some buildings to crack apart and start tumbling into the water, such as this seafront hotel in Cua Dai, a popular stretch of sand near the UNESCO World Heritage Site city of Hoi An. The historic city sits at no more than six feet (1.8m) above sea level, making it very vulnerable to rising sea levels, storm surges and coastal erosion.

Hoi An, Vietnam

A UNESCO report noted that Cua Dai Beach (pictured) is losing between 30 and 60 feet (9 and 18m) of land to erosion annually, and solutions are clearly required. In 2023 local authorities green-lit a project worth around £32 million ($42m), which aims to build dikes and embankments between Cua Dai and the nearby estuary, plus a data centre to monitor water quality and the strength of the coast.

Reculver Towers and Roman Fort, Kent, England, UK

Home to a Roman fort in the early 3rd century and later an Anglo-Saxon monastery, much of this historic site on the north Kent coastline has been washed away over the centuries. A large portion of what was once the Roman fort is now underwater, and coastal erosion has brought the edge of the beach to right underneath Reculver's twin towers. The striking structure was part of a remodelling of the abbey in the 12th century.

Reculver Towers and Roman Fort, Kent, England, UK

The church was finally abandoned in the early 19th century thanks to heavy coastal erosion, and its towers lived on mostly as a navigational aid. A major conservation project in 2023 aimed to protect the towers from extreme weather – including wind erosion – by thickening the walls and putting timber decks in the roofs. But with climate change hastening the sea's advance, the need for a long-term solution remains.

Atafona, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Once a popular seaside resort, the town of Atafona in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state has been slowly and relentlessly consumed by the Atlantic Ocean over the last 50 years. After the diversion of the Paraiba do Sul River in the 1950s, the city’s natural barrier against the ocean was neutralised, with less sand and sediment to stabilise the coastline. Destruction of nearby mangroves also left the city more vulnerable.

Atafona, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The crumpled wreck seen in this photo was once the Predio do Julinho hotel, which collapsed under the weight of the waves in 2008. In just the last two decades more than 500 buildings have fallen victim to the sea, and parts of the coastline have taken on an almost apocalyptic feel. Exacerbated by climate change, in recent times the ocean has been advancing at an average of almost 20 feet (6m) a year.

Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, North Jutland, Denmark

Built in 1900, this historic lighthouse perched on a sand dune on the northern Danish coast looked set to topple into the North Sea. After decades of being battered by the wind, waves and sand, the cliff on which the lighthouse stood had been eaten away. Originally, the lighthouse stood 650 feet (200m) from the sea, but erosion reduced that by seven feet (2m) a year until it stood a few strides away from the edge.

Rubjerg Knude Lighthouse, North Jutland, Denmark

A popular tourist attraction, the local authority decided to move the historic structure inland to save it from disaster. The feat took place in October 2019, when a huge team of experts and community volunteers helped put the lighthouse on wheels and rails to haul it some 260 feet (80m) inland. It's not the first time a landmark has been saved from the watery depths here – in 2008, the nearby 13th-century Romanesque Marup church was also dismantled and moved to prevent it from falling into the sea.

Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, England, UK

Immortalised in British mythology as the place of King Arthur's birth, tourist attraction Tintagel Castle is at severe risk of being lost to the Atlantic. The 13th-century castle ruin, sitting precariously on its namesake island on a rugged Cornish headland, was named one of six castles at risk of tumbling into the sea by English Heritage in 2022. Increasing coastal erosion is to blame, and a fundraising appeal was launched to salvage what remains of this historic site.

Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, England, UK

The site's struggle with erosion started as far back as the 14th century, and precious archaeology is regularly lost to cliff falls. The embattled castle is taking a beating from above as well as below: vicious onshore winds are hammering the masonry, slowly carving gaps in the ancient walls that are also in need of repair. The crashing waves make the site superbly atmospheric, but may eventually spell its doom.

California's beaches, USA

In 2023 researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) warned that 70% of California’s iconic beaches will be gone by the turn of the century. Using satellite data collected over the previous two decades, combined with sophisticated climate models, they were able to predict how California’s 1,100-mile-long (1,779km) coast will change over the coming decades. And it doesn’t look good for the likes of Humboldt Bay, Pismo Beach and Newport Beach.

California's beaches, USA

The study was the first time that satellite-derived shorelines were used for this sort of analysis and the results are alarming. Point Arena and Humboldt Bay in northern California, Pismo Beach and Morro Bay in central California, and Newport Beach and San Clemente in southern California are all at particular risk from erosion. "Beaches are natural resources," said Sean Vitousek, the researcher who led the study, "and efforts must increase to preserve them."

Now see which world landmarks are most at risk from climate change