A British holidaymaker has uncovered what is believed to be a lost, ancient temple while snorkelling in the Mediterranean.
Michael Le Quesne, 16, was swimming off a popular beach in Montenegro with his parents and his ten-year-old sister Teodora when he spotted an odd looking 'stone' at a depth of around two metres.
It turned out to be a large, submerged building which may have been the centrepiece of an important Greek or Roman trading post, swallowed up by the sea during a massive earthquake.
A British team of experts led by Dr Lucy Blue, presenter of BBC Two show Oceans, is to investigate the significant find in this largely unexplored corner of south east Europe.
Dr Blue said that if the discovery is confirmed to be an underwater temple it would “put Montenegro on the map”.
She added: “Montenegro is largely an undiscovered underwater world.”
The discovery was made while Charles and Vera Le Quesne and their two children, from Princes Risborough, Bucks, was on a trip to their holiday home in the tiny Balkan country last month.
The family has been holidaying in Montenegro since 1994, but had never visited Maljevik, a small bay of sand and shingle, sheltered by pines, near the city of Bar.
Once his son reported the find, Mr Le Quesne, a professional archaeologist, fetched a snorkel and dived down to investigate. He discovered fluted columns, 90cm in diameter, on plinths, which appeared to form part of an ancient Greek or Roman temple, basilica or major public building, similar to those at other archaeological sites around the Mediterranean.
On a clear day, the columns are visible from the surface of the water, but it appears that the remains, which include ancient pottery, have stayed untouched for thousands of years.
Michael said: “When I first swam out, I thought they were just rocks, as most people would, but then I noticed that they were cylindrical and knew that they couldn’t be natural, so I called my dad over.
“I’ve been dragged around a lot of ancient ruins, so if it hadn’t been for that I wouldn’t have looked twice.”
The potential size of the structure and the discovery of other architectural remains nearby suggest the ‘temple’ could have formed part of a large Greek or Roman settlement, dating back as far as the 2nd century BC.
No historical records exist of a major settlement on the site, although the Montenegrin coast is dotted with ancient ruins yet to be documented.
The discovery has been described as “something that could rouse curiosity in the world of science” by Mladen Zagarčanin, the curator of the museum in Bar and archaeologist, who inspected the site the following day.
Work on site later this month as Mr Le Quesne returns to Montenegro as part of a team working for the University of Southampton’s Department of Maritime Archaeology.
Dr Blue and Professor David Peacock, both of the department, will join Mr Le Quesne to explore the underwater settlement next spring.
Mr Le Quesne, an archaeology expert and author on the subject, said: “If it is a monumental building it is not going to be part of a small hamlet, but it is not a missing Atlantis, as we would already know about it. It remains a bit of a mystery.”
“The area was an important, ancient trading route, so it may have been a port.
“There are ancient shipwrecks all along this coast which, unfortunately, are being damaged and looted and which need protecting.”
In recent years, Montenegro’s rich, unexplored ancient history has lured organised crime gangs, which have flourished in the region since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Valuable Roman and Greek pottery from shipwrecks is being plundered and sold to collectors in western Europe, it is believed.
So far, 2009 has proved an exciting year for underwater archaeology in Montenegro, which is promoting its stunning coastline as a tourism hot spot while building a reputation as a cut-price version of Monaco thanks to a relaxed tax regime.
Before the discovery of the ancient temple, a local team working alongside American experts discovered the remains of two Roman cargo ships at the bottom of Kotor Bay, one of Montenegro most popular tourist attractions.---telegraph.co.uk