In May 2019, a group of dry cavers visited the famous silver mines of Lavrion in the southeastern area of Attica, Greece. The main objective of the visit was to inspect and document the flooded chambers.

Greek diving is back on the menu. X-RAY MAG’s Peter Symes asks Avgerinos Vrazopoulos, the director of Scuba Hellas—the Greek diving marketing group—for insights into the development of new dive locations and trip packages for international divers.

As my plane touched down in Athens on a warm and sunny October afternoon, it did not seem that long ago since the country experienced deep economic woes, during which a prolonged spat between the Greek Prime Minister Tsipras and then Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the EU bailout dominated the news for weeks on end, painting at times a bleak picture of a nation on the very brink of collapse and simmering with unrest. Not being totally impervious to these events, I was not sure what to expect when I booked the flights. But as I stepped off the plane, I did indeed look forward to finding out how Greece fared and forming my own opinions about the diving to be found here.

Through the centuries in Greece, Kea Island’s renowned statue, the Lion of Kea (one cannot see him from the shore, but I know he is there), continues to smile and look askance upon human vanity—exactly the same way he did in 1916, when during World War I, hospital ships were hit by mines and tragically sank in the Kea Channel. These ships, now wrecks, include HMHS Britannic and SS Burdigala.