Historic Cities · Greece
Pavlopetri through the ages
The archaeological site known as Pavlopetri is found in Vatika Bay, off the coast of southern Laconia in Peloponnese, Greece. It is about 5,000 years old, making it the oldest submerged city known in the world. Pavlopetri is unique in having an almost complete town plan, including streets, buildings, and tombs.
Pavlopetri in 1200 BC
The Bronze Age Harbour Town
Pavlopetri in 1200 BC is a working Mycenaean harbour town coming close to its long decline, lying where shallow lagoon and shore meet. Visitors will pass its planned grid of streets and two-storey courtyard houses, see looms and great storage jars, small fishing boats hauled on the strand, and the rock-cut tombs at the town's edge.
The town reads as a low, rectilinear plan set beside a sheltered lagoon: clusters of two-storey courtyard houses arranged on straight streets, yards ringed with large pithoi, and boats drawn up on a shallow sandy strand. Loom weights and pottery fragments punctuate open courtyards. The skyline is horizontal and coastal, the surface pale with sun-bleached clay and stone, and the sea always close enough to shape daily life.
The route: 9 streets, squares and views
Vatika Bay Approach → Harbour Strand → Central Street → Courtyard House Row → Textile Quarter → Pithoi Store → Potters' Street → Rock-cut Tombs → Onou Gnathos Headland
Step inside, 5 interiors
House Court with Loom · Loom Chamber of Weavers · Pithos Storage Chamber · Kiln and Potter's Workroom · Rock-cut Family Chamber
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Pavlopetri.
