You may have come across the picture below while logging in on your Windows computer. Or somewhere else! This odd thing is in Germany. At the coast. But what is it? Just scroll down and find out.

Tauchgondel (submerged gondola) in Zingst, Germany (Image by Gerd Fahrenhorst at Commons.wikimedia.org under license CC BY SA 3.0)

The Tauchgondel

A Tauchgondel is in a way similar to a Taucherglocke (diving bell), which allows a Taucher (diver) to submerge himself longer. The Tauchgondel is completely closed, however, and much bigger. It has a Säule (pillar) in the middle by which it goes down into the water and by which it comes back up. In the video above you can see how that happens. It brings you down 4 meters to 1 meter above the bottom of the sea. There are different Tauchgondeln, four in total, namely in Zinnowitz, Sellin, Zingst and Grömitz. They are all located at the Ostsee (Baltic Sea), and can take up to 30 Besucher (visitors) with them. The first one, in Zinnowitz, was opened in 2006. The others came in the following years, with Zingst being the last in 2013. They are unique in the world!

When you are down below, you can admire all the wonderful Meereslebewesen (marine life) From Quallen (jellyfish), as in the video below, to tiny fish!

However, as you can see in the video above, the view is not always very clear. The water is very green due to Plankton (plankton). And to compensate for that, the Tauchgondeln have 3D videos that show the Meeresleben (marine life) more closely. In it, you follow a Kegelrobbe (grey seal), the largest carnivore in Germany, and discover the beauty of the sea!

What do you think? Would you like to visit a Tauchgondel? Looks quite special to me! 🙂