It may not be Atlantis, but just how and why a city of some 40,000 square metres managed to become completely submerged are questions that a team of international archaeologists and oceanographers hope to answer. 

 They will converge this month at the site of Pavlopetri, in the southeastern Peloponnese, to continue their exploration and recording of the world’s oldest submerged town.

The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project, directed by Ilias Spondylis for the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Jon Henderson of the British University of Nottingham, aims to learn when Pavlopetri was occupied, how it was used, and why its vast remains now lie completely hidden beneath the sea.

It comprises of a network of building complexes, courtyards, streets, graves and rock-cut tombs which are visible on the seabed at a depth of three to four metres. The site’s coastal setting, west of Neapoli within the Vatika Bay, opposite the island of Elafonissos, indicates it was probably a town once frequented by seafarers and traders, and, according to experts, was probably occupied from circa 3500 BC through the end of the Late Bronze Age, circa 1100 BC.