Located beneath the depths of Perista, Alonissos, an ancient museum originally opened in 2020 now welcomes scuba divers to visit its ancient past in a completely underwater experience.
At the museum, one might expect to see wreckages and other forms of buried treasure covered in sand.
What is interesting about this museum is that it lies completely submerged in the turquoise waters of the Aegean seas. Also, due to the depth and intensity of the dive, museum goers are required to be fully certified and qualified in order to visit the wine carrying wreckage that dated as far back as the 5th century. For divers who are interested in visiting the museum, the fee stands at 95 Euros or S$152 a dive - which costs about 50 percent more than your regular recreational dives.
In the attempt to welcome more tourists to flock to Greece, the country has made diving part of its tourism focus since the legislation passed in 2020. This encouraged divers from around the world including Singapore to fly to Greece and scuba dive at some of the country’s new and emerging dive spots. "This is a type of tourism that attracts people all year round, a special audience that pays generously to dive," said Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis.
About 300 curious scuba divers have already paid their visits to the wreckage since the opening of the museum. And with tourism slowly beginning to reopen again, more safety regulations have to be imposed to preserve the site. For instance, scuba divers have to stay at least 2m away from the artefacts. Each dive is accompanied with a guide and no diver is to be left out of sight from the guide. Scuba divers are encouraged to bring and utilise their own diving equipment such as diving wetsuits and diving regulators.
With the easing of diving restrictions in Greece, one can see more of such attractions starting to open up. Another instance would be the World’s Deepest Diving Pool in Poland. For Singaporeans and the ease of travel restrictions come September, the island of Alonissos might just be a new and emerging spot that you do not want to miss out on.