Underwater Church, Potosi, Venezuela

Potosí was a Venezuelan town in the western state of Táchira. The town was deliberately flooded by the Venezuelan government in 1985 to build a hydroelectric dam. The town was uncovered for the first time since its flooding in 2010 due to a drought caused by the weather phenomenon El Niño.
Prior to 1985, Potosí was a town of approximately 1,200 inhabitants. The then-president of Venezuela, Carlos Andres Perez, flew in by helicopter and announced that the town was to be evacuated and then flooded to build a hydroelectric dam. Josefa Garcia, a former resident, visited the town's square for the first time and remembered that day saying, "He said we'd all be expropriated and we had to leave. It took our hope away." Garcia relocated to a region not far from her former home and other former residents moved throughout Venezuela. The houses and the colonial church were abandoned and the waters of the Uribante Reservoir, once covering 20 square kilometres (7.7 sq mi), submerged the town with the exception of the steeple of its church. The steeple is 85 feet (26 m) feet tall and was once used as the high-water mark for the reservoir.