A harbour built on the southern coast of Cyprus some 2,400 years ago is being turned into an underwater tourist attraction.
Holidaymakers will be able to snorkel while admiring the ancient remains of the harbour of Amathus, near the resort town of Limassol. The destination will serve as the first underwater archaeological park in Cyprus.
Authorities are betting on diving tourism as an attractive, socially distanced option at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has slashed tourist numbers.
“Tourists as well as local visitors will have the opportunity to see this impressive ancient harbour, to swim over it and to see how it was constructed, with three moles enclosing it,” says Cyprus Antiquities department official Yiannis Violaris.
Diving tourism isn’t entirely new for Cyprus. For years, divers have been flocking to the wreck of the MS Zenobia, a Swedish-built ferry that sank near the coastal town of Larnaca in 1980.