The Sunken Cemetery: The Only Living Underwater Graveyard In The Philippines

in #swmchallenge6 years ago (edited)

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Welcome To:
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Since the hallowen is coming and perfect holiday time for some countries, let’s talk about underwater graveyards. Shall we?

What is your first impression when you hear the words “underwater graveyard tourist spot”? Goosebumps right?

Man made underwater cemeteries like The Neptune Memorial Reef of Miami, Florida also known as the Atlantis Memorial Reef (largest man-made reef in existence) and
Queensland's Gold Coast Underwater Cemetery idea are starting to get more recognition in diving tourism.

How about a natural underwater cemetery?
If the Nagcarlan underground cemetery and museum in Bambang, Nagcarlan, Laguna is the only underground cemetery in the Philippines, the Sunken Cemetery of Camiguin Island is also the only underwater graveyard in the country popular for tourist attraction and diving site.
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SUNKEN CEMETERY HISTORY

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The sunken cemetery plays a significant role in Camiguin’s history. The island had four historic volcanic eruptions. The third one in 1871 was the worst followed by a strong earthquake. This devastating event destroyed the capital of the Island including Mambajao cemetery which is now known as the Sunken cemetery.

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The gravestones were still visible during the low tide but in In 1948, Mt. Vulcan erupted once again and the entire area submerged more deeper, approximately twenty to twenty five feet under water.
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SUNKEN CEMETERY’S TRADEMARK

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The giant cross in the middle of the sea is a replica of the old cross that was destroyed by historic calamities and is now lay underneath the sea.

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It was 1982, when the government officials build and put up the giant cross on the solidified lava as a trademark of the gravesite and as a tribute to the departed souls.
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PRESENT

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The giant cross is twenty-thirty meters from the shoreline and can be access (5-10 minutes) through a boat ride locally known as ”banca” for 25.00 pesos or .50 usd cents but that was few years ago.

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Over time, the sunken cemetery now serves as a popular sunset spot, snorkeling and diving site. Home to beautiful corals, tombstones are now populated by schools of fishes and different marine living organisms.
(Beautiful underwater images by Atlas Obscura and Yua Domingues.

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The locals are very friendly. What I won’t forget about our trip here is the comedian and very accommodating boat man.

After his short story telling about the sunken cemetery while paddling on the way to the cross docking, he offer to take us a picture in different artistic poses (force perspective photography) where you can see me flying like a witch riding the boat paddle instead of a witch broom (lol), another picture where I look like the goliath with the tiny husband in my palm. 😅
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My favorite part is when we got back in the land after aunset and the boat man took us another picture with our hand forming a heart shape with the cross inside it. Then he said, ”may the Lord God guide you both throughout your journey” and showed us the picture.
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We are so touch by his unexpected gesture and can’t thank him enough for his kindness and entertainment that make our trip truly more memorable so we gave him an extra tip.

God is truly amazing. After Camiguin’s devastation, the cemetery found a brand new life under water. ❤️

Till our next PH travel!

Related Post: Camiguin Fun Facts.
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All contents are mine unless stated otherwise
Cool divider by:

!steemitworldmap 9.207126 lat 124.632650 long Sunken Cemetery D3SCR

#travel #life #philippines #untalented
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Have a JOYful day Steemian!

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Wow, that is fascinating Joy! Thank you for sharing your travels and fabulous photos SiStar <333 :) Lots of LOVE!! That riding like a witch one is pure awesomeness!!! Being that I was born in "The Witch City" This one strikes me particularly deep ;) heheh

Where is that “witch city” sistra? Now I’m curious. Did you made a post about it?

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I haven't yet made a post about it...but that's a great idea SiStar <333 :) Thank you! The Witch City is Salem, Massachusetts..there's alot of interesting history there.

Hiya, just swinging by to let you know you're being featured in today's Travel Digest #322. Please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider upvoting the Travel Digest if you like what we're doing.

Thank you so much for this post @joyrobinson! I had no idea that this even existed, and the underwater photos especially are stunning! Love your "heart" photo at the end too.

I'm submitting this to c-squared; hopefully they'll stop by to show their appreciation as well :)

Wow, thank you Lynn!
Yes they did upvoted me.
Highly appreciated ❤️

Followed you

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oh you're so welcome @joyrobinson! It was my pleasure :)


This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.

Hello @lizelle,
Aside from recipes, I also post about my travels, paintings and crafts every week (which one comes first depends on my mood 😅)

Thanks for dropping by❤️

Interesting history, strange things happen then turn into something of beauty @joyrobinson

True, a new life for the dead

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Thank you for posting this @joyrobinson. It isn’t the first time when I hear about this sunken cemetery. Nature is truely amazing and you are right when you said that this cemetery come alive. The corals grew there because they feed on organic stuff. This is new Life coming out. Everything transforms, this is the low of our existence. 😊

Indeed. Thanks for reading!

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Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by joyrobinson from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

Wow I need to visit this place but I don't know how to swim. I'd love to take some underwater photos but I need to get around that swimming thing first. Your two look amazing by the way.

Stunning photo's @joyrobinson

I love scuba diving but I'm not sure I would like to dive in a cemetery! I'm sure I would be missing a treat though.

Cheers, Gaz

Im the opposite of you @cheese4ead.
I don’t know how to dive haha.
Diving is not necessary to see this beauty though.

Thanks for dropping by!

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You're welcome

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