Things found at the bottom of drained lakes
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Things Found at the Bottom of Drained Lakes — Daily trivia Saturday, July 4, 2026: questions and answers
All 10 questions with answers and explanations. Play this daily
Q 01Which abandoned Nevada town, submerged by Lake Mead, resurfaced as the reservoir's water dropped?
- ARhyolite
- BCallville
- CSt. Thomas
- DGoldfield
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St. Thomas
St. Thomas. The government bought out the town before Hoover Dam's reservoir filled, and one of the last residents, Hugh Lord, paddled away in 1938 as the water lapped at his door.
Q 02What crashed into Lake Mead while testing a prototype missile guidance system?
- AA Convair Peacemaker bomber
- BA Boeing Superfortress bomber
- CA Lockheed Constellation airliner
- DA Douglas Skytrain transport
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A Boeing Superfortress bomber
A Boeing Superfortress bomber. Glare off the glassy lake wrecked the pilot's depth perception, so he flew into the water at 230 mph, and all five crew escaped in life rafts.
Q 03What did the shrinking Aral Sea leave behind at the former Uzbek port of Moynaq that now draws tourists?
- AA stranded Soviet oil rig
- BA salt-crusted lighthouse
- CA ship graveyard
- DA sunken submarine base
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A ship graveyard
A ship graveyard. Soviet irrigation schemes diverted the rivers that fed the Aral Sea, and the water retreated so far that Moynaq's fishing fleet was left rusting on desert sand.
Q 04What popped back up days after Lake Peigneur drained into a salt mine?
- ANine of the sunken barges
- BThe drilling platform
- CThe Texaco tugboat
- DA stand of oak trees
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Nine of the sunken barges
Nine of the sunken barges, out of eleven swallowed. So much water poured into the mine that the Delcambre Canal ran backwards, briefly creating Louisiana's tallest waterfall.
Q 05Which capital city was built over the drained bed of Lake Texcoco?
- ABogotá
- BMexico City
- CLima
- DGuatemala City
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Mexico City
Mexico City. The Aztecs built Tenochtitlan on an island in the lake, and pumping groundwater from beneath the old lakebed is now making much of the city sink.
Q 06What UNESCO-listed prehistoric remains lie beneath the shores of Lake Zurich?
- ARoman villa mosaics
- BIce Age mammoth skeletons
- CMedieval castle foundations
- DStilt-house pile dwellings
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Stilt-house pile dwellings
Stilt-house pile dwellings. They came to light in the winter of 1853–54, when Lake Zurich fell so low that people at Meilen, reclaiming land, unearthed prehistoric settlement remains.
Q 07Mussolini had Lake Nemi pumped down to recover two huge ships built for which Roman emperor?
- ANero
- BTiberius
- CHadrian
- DCaligula
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Caligula
Caligula. After being raised, his ships sat in a lakeside museum until they burned on the night of 31 May 1944, a fire blamed on German troops or, in later research, Allied shelling.
Q 08A drought fully exposed the 'Spanish Stonehenge', drowned by a reservoir on which river?
- ATagus
- BEbro
- CDouro
- DGuadalquivir
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Tagus
Tagus. The megalithic Dolmen of Guadalperal went under the Valdecañas reservoir when its dam was built, and the drought left its granite standing stones fully in the open.
Q 09Which drowned South Tyrol village, its bell tower rising from a reservoir, gave its name to a Netflix series?
- ABardonecchia
- BSirmione
- CCuron
- DVipiteno
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Curon
Curon. The village was demolished and rebuilt on the new shore before the dam flooded the valley in 1950, and only the 14th-century church tower was spared.
Q 10What coated the ruins of Argentina's Villa Epecuén when its floodwaters receded after 25 years?
- AVolcanic ash
- BSalt crystals
- CRed algae
- DRiver mud
Show answer
Salt crystals
Salt crystals. After the flood drove everyone out, Pablo Novak became the ghost town's only resident, living among the ruins until his death in January 2024.
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