PAYLOPETRI "THE HIDDEN OR SUNKEN CITY"

A few years ago drawings of an ancient city were discovered at the Institute of Oceanography of Kempriz. It described how in 1967, N.C Fleming, of the Institute  discovered evidence of an underwater settlement and the next year a team of 7 members, under R.C. Jones undertook a submarine expedition to the area. Naturally the local people, and especially the fisherman, knew of the submerged city’s existence, as they had been bringing up various ancient artifacts for many years, but had kept it as an island secret.

Several hundred meters North East of the church of Agio Spiridona of Elafonisos is the islet of Paylopetri from which the entire region gets its name. The islet is located 200 metres from the little mainland port of Pounta (one of the biggest and most beautiful beaches of southern Peloponnese). The sunken city is situated just north east of this small islet in a depth of 2-3 meters of water. The whole underwater city covers an area of about 300 m by 100 m and begins about 50 m from the coast. Towards the island of Elafonisos the water gets deeper more quickly and so the city becomes a bit obscured between the rocks that form the reef, not being able to tell the difference between ancient stone walls and piles of underwater rocks. To date the full extent of this ancient city, which is said to exceed 10 hectares, has not been fully explored due to the depth of water that parts of it is submerged in. It is hoped the in the near future this area will be more fully explored and this magnificent ancient city will become one more of the many marvels that Greece has to offer.