Archaeological Park of Baiae

Does anyone know much about diving this site?

last time i dove Naples it was winter and the vis was terrible. we wound up scrubbing algae off the relics of pompeii. ill be diving the actual park in a few in a week or so though so ill reserve my comments but I hope that its better. Kair Keller of Sub Centro-Camp Flegrei i think is the op i used.

cutbait81:

last time i dove Naples it was winter and the vis was terrible. we wound up scrubbing algae off the relics of pompeii. ill be diving the actual park in a few in a week or so though so ill reserve my comments but I hope that its better. Kair Keller of Sub Centro-Camp Flegrei i think is the op i used.

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Yes, please let me know what you think of it after your dive. It looks interesting. Thanks

Hi Piccola,

I don't know if you are still interested in this, btw I'll be out there in a week.
Diving in this area (that has some kind of restriction from the Local Archeological Authority) is regulated by "Centro Sub Campi Flegrei" a CutBait noted. Their web is Centro Sub Campi Flegrei

It can have some archeological interest, but do not expect too much in terms of marine biology. Will tell you in a week.

I plan to visit this place for two years but waited for a first hand experience. I'm really curious...

Yes (The_Daddy), I am still very much interested in this site. I have been to several marine parks in Italy over the last few years and thought this, for its archeoligical interest, would be fascinating. Please keep me posted. Thank you

Ok, will certainly let you know something.... I will probably join them next saturday/sunday (today they were fully booked) and let you know my whole idea about the place and the diving itself. On their web there is every month the whole plans of dive sites. They mainly organize (according to the web) diving in the weekend and usually combine dive out in the sea (anywhere close to the island of Procida or Ischia) and dive in the park.

Piccola, where have you been diving it Italy? any place you feel to recommend?

The_Daddy,
Both May 2009 and 2011 I went to Santa Margherita Ligure and dove the Protected park of portofino. This year I also made my way to the isola di Bergeggi, near Savona. Last year I dove in Sorrento. All three places have been wonderful. The park of portofino is probably most popular and houses the famous Cristo degli Abissi. I tried to get out to the Haven, wreck off of Arenzano, but just could not manage it. Now I am toying with the idea of the archeological site. I emailed them at Baiae and they replied with some excellent information. Please let me know what you thought of the site. Thank you

I'm also interested in this since I'm a professional archaeologist and will be there a year from October.

Hi Piccola, Hi All,

well, finally I have been out (down ) to the Underwater Archeological Park of Baiae. To get there, It took 15 minutes by boat of the diving team that live from the "Lido Montenuovo" located on a beach in ArcoFelice. Here they have the dive centre where you can get the tank(s) and anything you might need in case your gear is not complete. Note, at the moment, they are running out of Nitrox even if, for diving the archeological park, i don't think anyone cares.

Marcello and Enzo (two of the owner of the diving centre, I believe) gave divers a terrific briefing before we got to the place, explaining everything about the history of the place and the specific dive site we were going to explore. We got excited and acknowledged.
The park is divided into 5 dive sites that you enter from different entry points located in the same bay. This bay is supposed to be a marine protected bay; navigation not allowed and you need a permit (as the dive centre has) to get there. Well, while we get ready to enter the water many boats passed over ignoring the fact they shouldn't be there. Enzo and Marcello screamed at them from the boat but were mainly ignored. Welcome in Naples!
This area was submerged in 1538 when a strong event of bradyseism happened. In one night the so called Montenuovo (New Mont in English) emerged (it is still the youngest mountain in Europe) and part of the coastal line was submerged.
The place we went today is named "Nymphaeum of Claudio". The whole dive was in very shallow water, we always stayed between 3/5 meter deep.
The dive consists of a visit to three main area: The "room" were the Nymphaeum and other statues are located; Herculanea street; the Thermal Baths.
As we jumped in the water we were almost in the middle of the building were are located several statues (a reproduction of them as the original ones are in the Archeological Museum of Baia) including this named Ninfeo. Those statues are supposed to reproduce the dynasty of the Imperator Claudio. Along the path of your dive, there are several "map" just as in a museum that tell you where you are and what you are going to see.
Vis was very low and we had to move very gently in those small spaces not to move sand from the sea bed that made it even worst. We were a group of 7. Too many in my humble opinion as far as spaces are pretty small and we had to make little lines more then once to see everything.
The Statue were very nice. I think there were six or seven of them. Actually you are able to see them now at your level while you dive, but originally they were located more high. The real floor of the room is still two/three meter under the sand/stones.
After the statues, we move towards the "Thermal Bath" and to get there we had to go trough the main Herculanea street. To see this street still composed in the sea is a real threat. All those big stones, one close to the other as it was in the past....wow!
Before we got to the Thermal Baths we stopped twice to see some floors. it is not clear to me if they were part of the Thermal Bath or the floor of nearby villas (i forget to ask out of the water) as I got a bit disoriented in the water given the very law visibility that did not permitted to understand deeply how places were connected. Those floors, btw, were really nice. Dive Master/Guide Enzo cleaned the floor for us where lot of stones/sand/shells were in order to appreciate the composition of the floor and especially its color. It was made of rectangular stones (not exactly stones, but floor ceramic named "Cotto" that means cooked, I believe the material they are made of is clay) of a warm red that locals call "Rosso Pompeiano" (Pompeian Red), a kind of color more similar to amaranth then red that was very common in the roman empire especially in this area.
We then entered the Thermal Baths. There were the three rooms for the three phases of the typical roman bath : Calidarium, Tepidarium and Frigidarium (warm room, temperate room and cold room). Usually there is even a laconicum (roman sauna) but I did not ask about it and could not manage to distinguish any in the water.
To finish the dive we went to see a marble floor that was just amazing. Unfortunately it is entirely covered with some protection because it is my understanding that this floor is very sensible to the sunshine. The floor, that is within the thermal complex, is a rectangular one that should be something like 5mt x 5mt. Enzo showed us a little corner of 60cm x 60cm more or less. he gently discover it, attended that everybody watched, and after recover it gently. It was so beautiful and so well preserved. Cannot believe it survived so many centuries in the water! It would have been magic to see the whole floor but i understand the need to protect and preserve it for the future generation.

We swim back to the boat and ended the dive. I did not have a computer but I would say we have been in the water approx 50 minutes.

The dive was very interesting. We were able to see some of the usual architecture of the roman empire, both private (the villas) and public (the thermal baths) including decoration (floors and statues). I will recommend for sure this dive to anyone interested in archeology and/or in the antique tradition.
We did not see any mosaics, that i Love...I believe they are in some others dives in the park.
During the briefing, Marcello told me that somewhere in a villa there was this kind of "katen sushi" to serve food to the guest. there were little halls in the floor filled with water, that with a special mechanism of slope and tilt served the dishes to the guest. So the servers just prepared dishes and let them goes over the water while people sit in proximity could take them. I looked for but I was not even able to locate it.

As far as marine life, there is almost nothing to mention. This dive is only with archeological purpose. Divers that do not "die for" those kind of things, might combine a two tanks going before out to the sea (where the diving goes always) early in the morning and then do a second dive there just to complete.

feel free to ask for further details. The cost of the dive is 35 Euro and include transportation on the boat, tax to enter the park, tank and weight. I payed 55 Euro because I needed the whole gear (including fins and mask).

Please forgive me if I said something stupid/crazy about the historical description. I'm not the best at it!