World’s oldest sunken city discovered off the coast of Greece

The legendary land of Atlantis may get all the press, but there is a sunken city that is much older than its mythological counterpart.

Pavlopetri is thought to be around 5,000 years old, but it was only discovered in the 20th century. To this day, experts are still working to unravel its secrets and treasures.

The Bronze Age city was first discovered in 1904 off the coast of the southern Greek Peloponnese by a geologist named Folkion Negris.

However, it remained largely undiscovered until Nicholas Flemming of the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Southampton rediscovered the site in 1967.

The following year, Fleming, accompanied by a group of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge, spent six weeks investigating the submerged city, which lies underwater in about three to four metres (10 to 13 feet), IFL science defeated.

The researchers then mapped the ancient city, which consisted of at least 15 separate buildings, courtyards, streets and tombs.

They also found a number of artefacts from the seabed, including pottery, knives and a small bronze statuette that they dated to between 2800 and 1180 BC. However, the city buildings themselves date from around 1650 to 1180 BC.

A diver examines the submerged remains of Pavlopetri, including parts of what was once a large rectangular building(Jon Henderson and the Pavlopetri Project)

You would think that the discovery of a long-lost city buried beneath the waves would generate quite a bit of hype. But in fact, it took another 40 years for the Pavlopetri site to gain wider attention.

In 2009, an international team of experts from the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Greek Ministry of Culture, the Hellenic Centre for Maritime Research and the University of Nottingham began a five-year project to excavate and explore the city in detail.

During their investigation, the team discovered an additional 9,000 square meters (97,000 square feet) of new buildings, including a large rectangular hall and structures located along a previously hidden street, IFL science notes.

Ceramics were also unearthed, confirming that the city existed in the Mycenaean period (the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece). Evidence was also found that the city was inhabited from about 3000 BC to 1100 BC, and that it was home to between 500 and 2,000 people during that period.

What ultimately sent Pavlopetri to the bottom of the sea is still unknown. Although some experts believe it may have been sunk by an earthquake that occurred around 1000 BC or 375 AD.

But since the city predated Plato’s allegorical account of Atlantis, some have enthusiastically suggested that Pavlopetri was the real inspiration for the glittering ‘lost’ continent that still captures our imaginations.

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