Greece’s first underwater museum opens ancient world to divers

“This is a combination of diving and archaeological diving. It’s diving into history,” says the 48-year-old psychiatrist after pulling himself onto the deck of the Triton dive boat. 

“It makes it special and unique.” 

The museum beneath the waves at Peristera, a rocky outcrop off the island of Alonissos, opened in 2020, though the site has been largely mothballed until now due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

As Greece opens up its vital tourism industry, the site offers an example of a new and more sustainable source of revenue. 

Divers like Fercher and Danish wine-cellar maker, Lisette Fredelund, are willing to pay 95 euros ($110) a dive -- about 50 percent more than the cost of a regular recreational scuba outing -- for a guided tour of a site. “It was just amazing,” said Fredelund. “I was just, while we were down there, trying to imagine what it had been like being on a vessel transporting wine.”