The Underwater World
of Greece
Maria Nikolidaki
Ancient Olous
Olous or Olus is an ancient, sunken city situated at today’s
town of Elounda in Crete. It was located on the site known
as Poros, around the narrow strip of land connecting
Elounda to the peninsula opposite.
Inhabited since Minoan times with more than 30,000
inhabitants, a sanctuary, a harbor and its own coin, Olous was
one of the most important and powerful cities of ancient Crete .
At some point the ancient city sank into the sea. Today, the
only visible remains of the city are some scattered wall bases
that make a great attraction for tourists to visit by swimming in
Elounda Bay.
Ancient Helike
Helike is an ancient submerged city, also known as
Dodekapolis, located in Achaea in northern
Peloponnesos. Founded in the Bronze Age and well
known for its sanctuary of Poseidon, Helike led the
Achaean League, an association that joined twelve
neighboring cities .
It was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 373 B.C., a
fate that is said to have influenced Plato's story of Atlantis. Its
ruins were discovered in 2000.
Pavlopetri
The ancient town of Pavlopetri lies in three to four meters of water
just off the coast of southern Laconia in Greece. Pavlopetri is
considered to be the oldest submerged town in the world since the
ruins date from at least 5000 B.C., including intact buildings,
courtyards, streets, chamber tombs and some graves which are
thought to belong to the Mycenaean period (c.1680-1180 BC).
Archaeologists have recovered the fragments of everyday items
such as cooking pots, crockery, jugs, storage and drinking
vessels.
The Antikythira Mechanism
More than a hundred years ago an astonishing mechanism was found
by sponge divers at the bottom of the sea near the island of
Antikythera. The famous Antikythira Mechanism which was
recovered in 1900–1901 from the Antikythera wreck, is an ancient
analog computer designed to calculate astronomical positions.
The construction has been dated to the early 1st
century B.C. and it astonished the whole international
community of experts on the ancient world with its
accuracy despite its oldness.
Calypso Deep
Calypso deep or "φρέαρ των Οινουσσών" is an
underwater abyss that reaches a depth of 5267 m
(17,280 ft) which is the biggest in the Mediterranean
Sea. It is located in the Ionian Sea, south-west of
Pylos.
Also, Calypso deep is associated with the international
NESTOR Project (Neutrino Extended Submarine Telescope with
Oceanographic Research Project), which is a very important
scientific collaboration of our times, whose target is the
development of a neutrino telescope on the sea floor off Pylos.
Sources
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15191614
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pavlopetri/index.aspx
http://www.aghiosnikolaos.gr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view
&id=34&itemid=52&lang=el
http://www.explorecrete.com/crete-east/EN-Elounda-history.html
http://www.helike.org/paper.shtml
http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/project/overview
http://www.discover-peloponnisos.gr/Default.aspx?id=1350&nt=18
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