Sunken City
PERIPLOUS
The PERIPLOUS project aims to showcase the "sunken city" of Epidaurus using combined advanced technological practices.
The project features a boat tour over the ruins with a simultaneous automated guided tour, thus providing visitors with a “cultural experience” that combines both entertainment and learning. The end objective of the project is to offer a high-value-added service accessible to all.
The proposed guided and narrated tour under the PERIPLOUS project has the following features:
It is a boat trip! It takes place on board a custom designed vessel with a transparent bottom that incorporates advanced technological practices and innovative techniques and devices. Therefore, the visitor will be able to see the “sunken city” through the transparent bottom while listening to the guided tour.
It is autonomous! It is a pioneering system, where both the narration and the navigation of the vessel take place without human intervention. It features a self-propelled floating vessel which is navigated in alignment with the storytelling system to provide the guided tour. The system enables real-time, safe, remote execution of automated navigation/guided tour scenarios using data transmitted from sensors, such as the vessel’s geographical position, the direction of the wind, the location of obstacles using ultrasounds, and the automated operation of the vessel’s electric motor, which makes stops at pre-set, specific locations at specific times.
It is a multimedia system! It incorporates different means and channels of presentation. The visitor can see the “sunken city” through the transparent bottom of the vessel while listening to the guided tour. At the same time, they can watch on a tablet a three-dimensional, hypothetical, depiction of the “sunken city” in ancient times!
It is for everyone! It is available to all visitors of the “sunken city” of Epidaurus, young and old, schoolchildren, college students, guides, museologists, researchers from archaeological schools, etc., as well as People with Special Needs (people with mobility and hearing problems).
Achieving the project’s objectives is expected to have a major impact twofold: at research/technology level and on the further development of tourism in the region, while also boosting the general economic activity.
The innovative technological approach of the PERIPLOUS project can also be used to highlight other areas with marine antiquities in Greece and abroad.
Protection status
The submerged remains of Epidaurus are protected under the Ministerial Decision “Declaration of underwater archaeological site in the area of Palaia Epidaurou” (ΥΠΠΟ/ΑΡΧ/Α1/Φ43/40032/2387, Government Gazette 1236/B/08-12-1998) and the Law 4858/2021 “Code legislation for the protection of antiquities and cultural heritage in general” (Government Gazette 220/A/19-11-2021).
Within the designated area, the following activities are prohibited:
- fishing
- anchorage
- underwater activities with respiratory apparatus (recreational scuba diving)
- theft of monuments
- embezzlement of monuments
- damage to a monument
- illegal trading in monuments
- illegal excavation or other archaeological research
- illegal use of a metal detector
- illegal export of cultural objects
- illegal intervention or execution of work
The project “Autonomous guided and narrated tour over the sunken city of Epidaurus” with the acronym PERIPLOUS (MIS 5056215) is co-financed by the European Union and Greek national funds under the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innnovation 2014-2020” (EPAnEK) in the frame of “Special Actions AQUACULTURES – INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS – OPEN INNOVATION IN CULTURE”.