Are there any dive spots with houses like in The Deep House?

In The Deep House, two YouTubers who travel in search of creepy places to explore head to France in search of a submerged sanatorium in the fictional Lake Frais. However, they instead discover the lake is a super popular and crowded tourist spot, which isn’t ideal for filming.

However, a local approaches them and says, “Hey, I know where there’s a perfectly preserved underwater mansion you can check out.”

Sounds like the start of a good horror movie, right? It was a pretty decent addition to the found-footage genre, I must say. Very original. I mean, sure. At its heart, it’s a haunted house movie. Nothing new about that. Nor is YouTubers seeking out an adventure and finding more trouble than they can handle.

But we’ve never seen anyone exploring a haunted house underwater before. As I watched, I couldn’t help but wonder if a real place inspired The Deep House. It reminded me a little bit of the “ghost village” on Lake Vagli in Italy. Sometimes they have to drain the lake for maintenance, and when they do Fabbriche di Careggine, a medieval village hidden under the water, emerges. I’m not sure if it’s haunted…but it sure looks haunting!

The Deep House also reminded me of scenes from a scary French series called The Returned. A church steeple rose from the lake near the town (fictional) where the series was set.

But what about actual dive spots like in The Deep House? There are some amazing dive spots in seas and oceans for divers to explore ancient cities, such as Cleopatra’s Alexandria in Egypt. The Travel reported that “the entire city was completely submerged with all its statues, columns and artifacts largely intact” when an earthquake-triggered tsunami sank the city. Since 1998 archaeologists have been excavating the site, and visibility isn’t great, but there’s still a lot for divers to see and explore.

And then there’s Pavlopetri in Greece, the oldest submerged city in the world. Insider reports that an almost complete city lies on the seabed off the southern coast of Lakonia. It’s comprised of streets, buildings, what looks to be a religious complex, and even tombs. No wonder it’s a popular dive spot.

But what about lakes with submerged houses (haunted or otherwise), sanatoriums, or any other structures that divers can explore like in The Deep House? Do any dive spots like that really exist?

I found three interesting candidates. Let’s check them out.

1. The Sunken City of Shi Cheng in Qiandao Lake in China

Only expert divers are allowed to explore the almost perfectly preserved ancient city of Shi Cheng, or “Lion City,” that rests beneath the waters of Qiandao Lake. The temples date back to the 2nd century and were submerged when the government flooded the area, now called the Thousand Island Lake, in 1959 to create the Xin’an River hydroelectric station.

Intricate carvings on the temples create a spectacular site for divers to behold, I’m sure. They don’t call it the Atlantis of China for nothing!

2. Capo D’Acqua in Italy

It didn’t take me long to notice a theme developing among these dive sites, no matter what part of the world they were in. They were created when areas were flooded to create manmade lakes. That’s also the story in Capo D’Acqua’s case.

Suba Diver Life says this dive site is novice-friendly, though. It counts two mills and an old paint factory among the structures under its waters. Well, the factory is visible above the waterline, but the submerged ruins of the mills make for fascinating places to explore.

3. Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas

Amistad Reservoir is located on the border of Mexico in west Texas. It sounds like a great place for lake diving. In addition to spots where you can see lots of freshwater fish, you can also see bridges, an old ranch house, and the old dam.

According to the National Park Service, the one-story house dates to the 1930s and is “complete with windows and fireplaces but missing a roof.” No idea if any paranormal activity has been reported there, but another of the dive sites sounded pretty scary: the Devils River Dam.

It was constructed in 1928 but was submerged in 1969 when the Amistad Dam was completed. Here’s the part of the description about this dive site that triggered my claustrophobia and gave me chills:

The top of the old power house is approximately at 55 foot depth when the lake is at conservation level. It is highly recommended that divers not enter the power house as black out conditions and entrapment dangers exists.

Nope. Nuh uh. No thank you. I might like to see the top of the power house, though. And I’d definitely want to check out the old ranch house, but I’m not about to go getting myself trapped underwater anywhere. If for no other reason than The Deep House confirmed what I always knew: that’s a horrible idea.

For more info: https://www.nps.gov/submerged/Parks/AMIS.html

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Would you explore an underwater haunted house like in The Deep House?