The Alonissos Underwater Museum features one of the biggest Classical-era shipwrecks. It is dated around 425 to 420 B.C and was discovered in 1985 by Dimitris Mavrikis at a 25-meter depth off the coast of the islet Peristera.
Due to its unique size, the ship ranks among the biggest commercial ships of its time. It was 30 meters long and 10 meters wide. It was carrying around 3,000 amphorae full with the renowned wines of Mendi (a city in modern day Chalkidiki) and Peparithos, which is modern day Skopelos. The big commercial vessel probably belonged to an Athenian merchant and seems to have run into stormy weather while sailing near the coast, where it sank. Another plausible theory is that a fire broke out on deck, which eventually caused the sinking of the ship.
The amphorae found had the letters ΛΥ inscribed on them, which was probably at that time a way of marking the goods. The course of the ship cannot be determined; some say that, when the fire broke out, it was heading to Alonissos to unload the goods, while others speculate that it had just departed from Alonissos, that’s why it was found not very far from the port.
The vessel is considered to be of uttermost importance to archaeology because of the number of intact findings. It is so important that it is dubbed as “The Parthenon of Shipwrecks“.