EVEN people who struggle to stifle a yawn at the mention of the word 'history' shouldn't rule out visiting museums on trips to Spain – unless they also hate chocolate, toys, beer, arts and crafts, space, cars, volcanoes, cheese, wine, and even Harry Potter. For inspiration, take a look at our article here.
Get off the sofa, switch off the TV, and head for your nearest museum - not all of them are on dry land, though. This is one of over 300 sculptures at Lanzarote's Museo Atlántico - note the plate with burger and chips on the subject's lap (photos 1, 6, and 7-16 inclusive from Underwater Museum Lanzarote or its tied scuba school, Dive College Lanzarote)
And although anyone can pop into a local museum on foot and dry land, it's scuba-divers who get the most privileged view of the Mediterranean – not just by being able to share water-space with its rainbows of fish, corals and plants, but because they are likely to have exclusive access to Roman artefacts nobody else has ever seen before.
In fact, Europe's southern seas are literally littered with such remains, and local museums – of which nearly every town, however small, has one – are full of them. Constant trade, and shipwrecks, between the Empirical city of Rome and the east coast of Spain left multiple traces beneath the waves; to the point where finding 'yet another' amphora, or wine and oil bottle, dating back 2,000 years might only be given a couple of lines and a small picture in the local news, if at all.
Roman amphorae found on the sea floor off Spain's east coast, displayed at the Soler Blasco Archaeology Museum in Jávea, northern Alicante province. This is only a tiny handful of these ubiquitous 2,000-year-old bottles - local history museums all along the Mediterranean seaboard have similar collections (photo: Comunidad Valenciana regional tourism board)
But not all museum fare in the sea is transferred ashore, not all of it is old, and not all of it is there purely by accident.
Sinking ships: Divers(e) wrecks to explore
Beach towns along the Mediterranean have been talking for some time about 'deliberately' sinking ships off their shores. Newly designed but in centuries-old styles, using materials that will not pollute the water or harm its flora and fauna, dropped into the depths, serve two crucial purposes: One, as artificial 'coral' reefs. Marine plants grow on them, providing oxygen and shelter for fish. Two, as an extra attraction for divers – either regular, resident scuba-diving fans, or those on holiday, some of whom may even be drawn to the area entirely for its watersport activities.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com