Last month, National Geographic Traveller named Greece’s Alonissos Island as a destination on the rise for 2021.
Often referred to as “the Parthenon of shipwrecks,” the sea offshore of the island is dotted with the eerie remains of the ancient Peristera shipwreck recently opened as the first underwater museum in Greece accessible to recreational divers.
The National Geographic article about Alonissos described the National Marine Park of Alonissos and the Northern Sporades, the site is thought to hold the cargo from a large Athenian barge that sank in the fifth century B.C.
The area, which has been cordoned to limit human activity since 1992, is also the primary habitat of the endangered Mediterranean monk seal.
Adventurers who wish to explore the submerged museum must be able to dive to depths of at least 80 feet for the guided tour of the shipwreck.
Alonissos is the most remote of the Northern Sporades island group, and a refuge for rare seabirds, dolphins as well as the aforementioned Mediterranean monk seals.