Divers have discovered a new underwater cave while exploring near Spathas, a little over 20km west of the port city of Chania. Chania Diving Center created the short video below showing the experience exploring the subterranean cave where freshwater flows into the sea.
Update: Just after publication I had the opportunity to speak with Nikolas Giannoulakis (below), who is the owner of Chania Dive Center and one of the divers who helped with recent excavation in the famous wreck of Antikythera. This update includes information and comments from the dive trainer.
Most divers who come to Crete are familiar with famous caves like the submarine Cave of Elephants located in Drepano area of Akrotiri, in Chania prefecture. Named for the amazing palaeological find of the bones of an unknown elephant species from 60,000 years ago within the cave, this underwater marvel is but one of many beneath the waves around Crete.
This new find by Nikolas Giannoulakis and his team beneath the waters off Peninsula Rodopos is invisible from the surface, but in fairly shallow waters according to Chania Diving Center’s owner Nikolas Giannoulakis . The cave, which has three chambers connected underwater, has a wealth of stalactites and stalagmites, according to Giannoulakis.
I was curious to ask the exact location of the new cave, not initially thinking of the safety of diving new locations. When asked about the caves proximity to the archaeological site at Diktynna, the dive instructor told me the cave is about 2 nautical miles from the archaeological dig. He continued by explaining:
“I can’t expose the exact position of the cave yet, because I need to get the ok from the paleoanthropologists and the speleologists first.”
Giannoulakis also filled me in on the estimated depth of the new cave, and the potential of the site as a future destination attraction. According to the dive center owner, he and his colleagues only explored about 500-600 meters of the cave, which he say is huge. He told me the first chamber will be a good dive for normally certified divers, but that the second and third chamber are for cave divers certified to go.
Of course, further exploration and mapping will surely lead to the site being added to Crete’s underwater tourism attractions, as the cavern’s discoverer suggested.
For those divers who are interested, Crete has the magnificent Sfakias Cave in southern Crete, the sea caves off Marmara Beach, the sea Cave of Papanikolis South of Heraklion, not to mention hundreds of undiscovered ones dotting the submarine landscape.