Humans have long been fascinated and frightened by the beauty and power of our oceans. Some communities feel its sheer force more than others. Here we take a look at historic villages that have fallen prey to the waves, today's coastal communities that have been abandoned to the sea, plus natural and man-made landmarks at risk of rising sea levels, including Britain's mythical Tintagel Castle.

Once the capital of the Kingdom of the Eastern Angles, Dunwich today is a pretty but insignificant settlement on the Suffolk coast. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book as having a population of 3,000 and three churches. In the 14th century, it was nearly as large as London. But the rich medieval town succumbed to the rigour of the North Sea as coastal erosion and storms took their toll. Pictured here in 1908 are the ruins of All Saint’s Church, which sit perilously close to the cliff edge.

It's thought that two great storms whipped through Dunwich in 1286 and 1326, wrecking the trading town’s harbour and starting its inevitable decline. Archaeological research has found ruins of the “lost city” on the seabed, including the remains of churches and a toll house. All Saint’s Church was the last of old Dunwich’s ancient churches left standing. It was abandoned to the elements in the 1750s and finally succumbed to the crumbling coastline and sea in the 1920s when the last of its ruins fell.

Another of Britain’s infamous lost seaside villages is Hallsands on the Devon coast. It’s still possible to see the scant remains of the once little but lively fishing village that sat on a perilous spot between the cliffs and the sea. Severe storms struck on the night of 26 January 1917 and swept 29 homes out to sea. It's since been discovered that during an extension of the naval dockyard at Plymouth in the 1890s, Hallsands beach was dredged for sand and gravel – leaving the village exposed with no chance when a strong storm blew in.

It wasn’t the waves that sealed the fate of Rattray but shifting sands. Granted royal burgh status by Mary Queen of Scots in 1564, the settlement of old Rattray, which lies between Peterhead and Fraserburgh, centred around its castle and harbour. The coastline's encroaching sands were helped along by a great gale in 1720 which moved a sand dune and doomed what remained of the little village. The ruins of the late 12th-century St Mary’s Chapel can still be seen today.

The might of the sea is intertwined with the history of Winchelsea on the East Sussex coast. The original town now lies beneath the waves of Rye Bay, possibly underneath the dunes of Camber Sands. Sustained coastal erosion and a large flood in 1287 destroyed much of the thriving port town. It was rebuilt slightly inland on a hill with access to the sea via the River Brede. But the shifting coast caused the river to silt up and the new Winchelsea’s access to the sea was eroded.

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Brighton’s West Pier opened to great fanfare in 1866 during the Victorian boom for beach holidays. An archetypal example of UK seaside architecture, the pier was added to over the years and at its prime featured a concert hall, funfair and tearoom. It was extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and became a much-loved landmark on the Brighton seafront. The West Pier fell into financial decline in the 1960s, before closing in 1975 and falling into disrepair. 

After decades of being pounded by the waves, the crumbling structure succumbed to heavy seas and strong winds in 2002, which caused a walkway to collapse and felled part of the concert hall. The remains of the once iconic pier caught fire the following year, in a suspected act of arson. Part of the derelict Grade I-listed structure's eastern side crumbled into the sea in January 2013 following winter storms. However, what remains of the evocative ruins form a striking landmark on the seafront.

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Coastal elements have shaped the history of Ribe, a Viking settlement and Denmark’s oldest town. One of the worst storm surges to hit the port took place in 1634. The water in the harbour rose more than 20 feet (6m) above normal levels. Farms and livestock were washed away and at least 8,000 people drowned. Its cathedral was also inundated – there’s a mark on a pillar behind the pulpit that shows where the water reached. With sea levels rising, the low-lying area remains very vulnerable to the waves. This storm surge column, pictured, marks the levels of its historical floods.

In what was one of the UK's worst natural disasters, a huge storm surge swamped coastal towns in Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent, as well as Scotland, in the winter of 1953. Canvey Island, a low-lying island on the north shore of the Thames estuary, was among the worst hit by the 1953 North Sea flood. Pictured here is the seaside resort, which was a hugely popular for beachgoers in the first half of the 20th century, in 1925.

The storm and resulting surge that struck the UK, the Netherlands and Germany on 31 January 1953, overwhelmed the estuary island’s sea defences. It resulted in 13,000 people being evacuated from their homes and 59 deaths. A sturdy sea wall was later built to defend the island's scarred community from the sea. But with parts of the reclaimed estuary island lying below sea level and the North Sea rising due to global warming, it remains highly vulnerable to tidal flooding. 

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A tiny marshy island in Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay has long seen the effects of the encroaching sea. Tangier has lost two-thirds of its land since 1850 and climate change is accelerating the remote island's fate. Home to a soft-shell crab and oyster fishing industry, Tangier is sinking and faces storm-driven erosion and rising sea levels. Pictured here is the remains of a cemetery, which has been washed away as water encroaches on the low-lying island.

The London Arch is one of many striking rock formations that can be seen along the sweep of Australia's magnificent Great Ocean Road. However, the much-photographed landmark used to be known as London Bridge until the rock connecting it to the mainland collapsed into the Southern Ocean in 1990. Two terrified tourists were left stranded on the remaining stack as the strong waves lashed below until they were rescued by helicopter hours later. It's now known as the London Arch.

Now cut off from the mainland, the natural arch in the Port Campbell National Park remains a popular tourist spot, although it’s now appreciated from afar. The waves have carved out unique formations all along the striking coastline and continue to change the shape of the limestone and sandstone cliffs.

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The sheer power of the Southern Ocean is something onlookers were powerfully reminded of in 2005 when one of the Great Ocean Road’s most famous rock formations, the Twelve Apostles, succumbed to erosion. One of the nine giant limestone pillars collapsed into the sea as tourists looked on. Here is the landmark, pre-collapse.

Another stack collapsed into the crashing waves in 2009. The photogenic stacks, which are 20 million years old, were once cavernous caves in the soft cliff, carved out by the waves and wind. They became arches before eventually collapsing into towering stacks, cut off from the mainland. The other "apostles" will also collapse in the future, but new stunning pillars will likely form.

Backed by Snowdonia and lashed by the Irish Sea, the coastal community of Fairbourne on the west coast of Wales may well see their home disappear beneath the waves in their lifetime. The local council has said it can no longer defend the village from the waves in the long-term and will not invest in its sea defences from 2050. It will become the first community in the UK to be decommissioned as a result of climate change.

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The commanding Statue of Liberty, America’s long-standing symbol of freedom in New York City, could fall victim to the rising sea, UNESCO reports. In October 2012, flood waters from Hurricane Sandy submerged three-quarters of Liberty Island and almost all of Ellis Island. Although the iconic statue itself was not damaged, the historic site's infrastructure was severely hit by the storm surge, including its docks which were completely destroyed.

In the future, it may not escape unscathed. The iconic landmark has been pinpointed as a heritage site at risk of being irreparably damaged and potentially washed away due to rising sea levels and intensifying storms causing huge storm surges. The water on the east coast of the US is among some of the fastest rising water in the world.

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Indonesia’s populous capital is the fastest sinking city in the world. North Jakarta, much of which is below sea level, is especially prone to regular coastal flooding. Pictured here is an abandoned and flooded mosque that was built before defensive walls were constructed. With ever-rising sea levels, it's expected around 95% of North Jakarta will be submerged by 2050. It’s so much of a problem that Indonesian president Joko Widodo has announced the national capital will move from Jakarta, on the island of Java, to the province of East Kalimantan, on Borneo.

A picture-perfect limestone arch, known as the Azure Window, was one of Malta’s top tourist spots and featured in numerous films and TV series such as Game of Thrones. The truly spectacular sea arch, near Dwejra Bay on the gorgeous island of Gozo, was shaped by centuries of natural coastal erosion.

Sadly in March 2017, heavy storms hit the Maltese archipelago and the striking rock formation, also known as Tieqa tad-Dwejra, collapsed dramatically into the rough seas. The rock still draws tourists who now come to scuba dive to see its submerged boulders beneath the waves.

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This age-old rock arch in Porthcothan Bay, near Newquay in Cornwall, UK, was reduced to rubble after being battered by huge waves during a winter storm in January 2014. The surf beach’s famed stone archway, known locally as The Anchor or Jan Leverton's Rock, was a landmark on the Cornish coast but could not withstand the 30-foot (9m) waves and 70-miles-per-hour (113km/h) winds that battered it.

The violent winter storms of 2014, some of the worst to hit Britain in decades, not only obliterated Porthcothan Bay’s natural arch but also damaged other areas of the British coastline, including parts of the UNESCO-listed Jurassic Coast in Dorset. Sections of Chesil Beach were lost and the 150-million-year-old Pom Pom Rock, a stack formation on the southern edge of Portland, also collapsed during the bad weather.

The 95-mile (153km) stretch of coast that runs from Dorset to Devon is one of Britain’s most amazing natural wonders. Its dramatic cliffs, secluded coves, coastal stacks and barrier beaches record 185 million years of Earth’s history. Famed for unique rock formations such as Old Harry Rocks and Durdle Door, and the high cliffs of Burton Bradstock and West Bay, this wild landscape has been shaped by erosion and will continue to drastically change its appearance.

Pictured here is a fresh cliff fall at Burton Bradstock, a stunning red cliff-backed beach in Dorset, caused by coastal erosion in March 2020. Landslides are common along the coastline with bad weather causing the cliffs to become unstable and collapse. Climate change will make the UNESCO World Heritage Site and its communities more vulnerable to the rising sea with more frequent cliff collapses and beach floodings predicted.

California’s stunning coastline is slowly crumbling into the sea as numerous cliff collapses, landslides onto its beaches and floods change its shape dramatically. Pictured here is Pacifica in 2016 after storms and powerful waves, caused by El Niño, accelerated erosion along coastal bluffs and beaches in the area. Beaches, homes, roads, and infrastructure along the coast are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise in the future.

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With its pine-backed beaches, coastal dunes and surf waves, France’s Atlantic Ocean coastline is a popular seaside spot. But it's being eaten away by the ocean too – something former residents of the Signal Building in seaside town Soulac-sur-Mer on the Medoc peninsula, were only too aware of when they were evacuated following acute coast erosion. The 1960s apartment building was originally more than 650 feet (200m) from the shoreline, but in 2019, it lay just 32 feet (10m) away. Is history repeating itself? A settlement here was engulfed by the waves back in AD 580.

One historic lighthouse doomed by the relentless nature of the North Sea is the Grade II-listed Orfordness Lighthouse in Suffolk, England. It is set to be demolished due to the severe erosion of the beach beneath it. In 2005, it lay 65 feet (20m) from the shoreline and in 2015, just 32 feet (10m). In 2019 a storm caused its engineer's bunkhouse to collapse and more severe storms in 2020 have also taken their toll. The classic red and white lighthouse was built in 1792 and decommissioned in 2013.

Skara Brae was saved by a storm and it could be a storm that sees the archaeological site reclaimed once again by the waves. The small Neolithic farming community, in the Orkney archipelago off Scotland's northeast coast, was lost to history after the climate changed and powerful storms buried the stone remains under water and sand. In 1850, another powerful storm tore into the island's coastal dunes and high tides stripped the grass from a large mound, revealing Skara Brae once more. But the remains are under constant threat by coastal erosion.

As Alaska’s natural buffer – ice – disappears, its coastline is being battered by a combination of storm surges, rising seas and river flooding. Pictured here is Drew Point in northern Alaska after a large section of the cliff crumbled into the sea. A satellite-based study of the retreating permafrost calculated that the vast state's northern coast is losing 56 feet (17m) per year to the Arctic Ocean. In 2016, the sea consumed an average of 72 feet (22m) of a 5.5-mile (8.8km) stretch of coast around Drew Point.

The ancestral lands of the Iñupiat are also at risk. It's due to the loss of sea ice that usually protects the shorelines of the remote Alaskan village of Kivalina from storm surges and coastal erosion. Now homes teeter perilously close to the water’s edge on the narrow spit of land, with nothing to shield them from the rising tide. The sea ice is melting earlier in the season which is also making it unsafe for villagers to traverse to hunt and fish, a way of living integral to their culture and survival.

Some of central Vietnam's most beautiful coastal towns and beaches are in danger of disappearing. Rising seas and erosion have caused some buildings to crack apart and start tumbling into the water, such as this seafront hotel in Cửa Đại, a popular stretch of sand near UNESCO World Heritage Site Hội An. The historic city sits at no more than six foot (1.8m) above the sea level, making it very vulnerable to rising sea levels, storm surges and coastal erosion. A UNESCO report notes that Cửa Đại beach is losing between 30 and 60 feet (9 and 18m) of land to erosion annually.

Home to a Roman fort in the early third century and later an Anglo-Saxon monastery, much of this historic site on the north Kent coastline has been washed away over the centuries. Coastal erosion has brought the edge of the beach to right underneath Reculver's twin towers. The striking structure was part of a remodelling of the abbey in the 12th century. There is great debate as to whether heritage buildings facing coastal erosion should be left to their fate or preserved at all costs.

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Once a popular seaside resort, the town of Atafona in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state has recently been engulfed by crashing waves. After the diversion of the Paraiba do Sul River in the 1950s, the city’s natural barrier against the ocean was reduced, with less sand and sediment to stabilise the coastline. Deforestation of nearby mangroves also left the city more vulnerable to erosion. In the last 14 years, almost 500 buildings in Atafona have been destroyed, and rising sea levels mean there’s little hope for the city’s resurrection.

Built in 1900, this historic lighthouse perched on a sand dune on the northern Danish coast was looking set to topple into the North Sea. After decades of being battered by the wind, waves and sand, the cliff on which the lighthouse stood had been eaten away. Originally, the lighthouse stood 660 feet (200m) from the sea, but erosion has reduced that by seven foot (2m) a year until it stood a few strides away from the edge.

A popular tourist attraction on the island's striking coastline, the local authority decided to move the historic structure inland to save it from its briny doom. The amazing feat took place in October 2019 when a huge team of experts and community volunteers helped put the lighthouse on wheels and rails to haul it some 260 foot (80m) away from the North Sea. It's not the first time a landmark has been saved from the watery depths here – in 2008, the nearby 13th-century Romanesque Mårup church was dismantled and moved to prevent it from falling into the sea.

Immortalised in British mythology as the place of King Arthur's conception, tourist attraction Tintagel Castle is on the brink of being lost to the Atlantic. The 13th-century castle ruins, sitting precariously on its namesake island in a rugged Cornish headland, have been named by English Heritage as one of six castles at risk of tumbling into the sea. Increasing coastal erosion due to climate change is to blame, and a fundraising appeal has been launched to salvage what little is left of this historic site.

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Researchers from the US Geological Survey (USGS) have warned that 70% of California’s iconic beaches will be gone by the turn of the century. Using satellite data collected over the past two decades, and combining it with sophisticated climate change models, they have been able to predict how California’s 1,100-mile-long coast will change over the next decades. And it doesn’t look good for the likes of Humboldt Bay, Pismo Beach and Newport Beach.

The 2023 study is the first time that satellite-derived shorelines have been used for this type of analysis and the results are alarming. The study pinpointed Point Arena and Humboldt Bay in northern California, Pismo Beach and Morro Bay in central California, and Newport Beach and San Clemente in southern California as being particularly at risk from severe erosion. “Beaches are natural resources,” said Sean Vitousek, the researcher who led the study. “Efforts must increase in order to preserve them.”