Venice Once Sat Miles Inland, Researchers Find

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorI've been to Venice, and I'm telling you it has always floated. Gondolas, canals, the lot. That city has never once been on dry land.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorScientists say the land Venice sits on once lay many miles inland, the Guardian reports.

3. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorInland. Where, Hank? Kent?

4. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThey combined seismic data with sediment cores from coastal basins in northern Italy, Slovenia and northern Croatia, then modelled sea level changes over ten thousand years.

5. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorSo they drilled mud and decided my gondola ride was a lie.

6. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorWhat they found was ancient hills and swamps that disappeared as the sea rose across the northern Adriatic.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorMuch of the land our ancestors roamed now lies underwater.

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorSwamps. Fine. But the study only reconstructs the past, and it can't tell me what the city does about it now.

9. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThat's fair. It's a reconstruction from cores and models, not a photograph. Ruling: myth. Venice used to be dry land.

10. 

    Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorVenice didn't move. The sea just turned up and ordered a table.