A Village Under Water For Decades Is Now Emerging From An Italian Lake

A village submerged beneath an Italian lake for decades, like a real-life Atlantis, is now peeking above the water's surface, BBC News reports. 

What is now a lake bed used to be the village of Curon, once home to hundreds of people. Curon was flooded in 1950 to create a hydroelectric plant. A dam was built to merge two lakes, and the village has been covered by the Lake Resia ever since, according to BBC News.

The lake, which sits near Italy's border with Austria and Switzerland, is now being temporarily drained to repair a reservoir. And as the water levels decrease, the 160-home village is emerging. 

Usually a 14-century church steeple sticks out of the water, but as the water drains, some people have seen newly exposed steps, cellars and walls, BBC News reports. 

Many residents objected to the dam's creation. Curon's population was displaced and many moved to another village that was created nearby. 

The sunken village has inspired an Italian Netflix series, "Curon," as well as a book, according to BBC News.

The area is a popular destination for hikers, who flooded social media with eerie photos of the village emerging. One woman from the area tweeted that it was a "strange feeling" to be walking on the rubble of former houses.