1.
S.V. FROGMEN PUTTING ON EQUIPMENT.


2.
L.V. DITTO ENTERING WATER.


3.
S.V. FROGMEN STANDING IN WATER.


4.
L.V. FROGMEN DIVE.


5.
L.V. FROGMAN SURFACES HOLDING PART OF BROKEN VASE.


6.
FROGMAN WITH VASE.


7.
S.C.U. ANOTHER FROGMAN WITH VASE.


8.
S.V.PAN FROGMEN CARRYING THEIR FINDS FROM WATER.


9.
C.U. DITTO.


10.
POTTERY IS PLACED ON THE BEACH.


11.
S.V. THE PRESIDENT OF PYRGOS COMMUNITY AND THE MAYOR EXAMINING POTTERY.


12.
C.U. YOUNG GIRL HOLDING UP POTTERY.


13.
L.V. ARCHAEOLOGICAL FINDS.


14.
S.V. DITTO.


15.
C.U. DITTO.




Initials JRG/CW W.S./P.B.



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Underwater swimmers found vases and tools in Andreas Bay, near Pyrgos, West Poloponnese, Greece, then uncovered the ancient city of Phia, once connected to Olympia by a sacred road and thought to be 3,500 years old.

Two professional frogmen and an underwater amateur plunged October 15 into the blue waters of the bay, under the eye of a Visnews camera, clambered ashore with broken vases and amphoras.

Their finds were the latest across the centuries to be taken from the bay. So great was the collection that a small house in nearby Ayios village became a museum for them - pieces of columns, coins, tools and other relics of the lost city.

Until recently the smaller objects retrieved were believed to have been thrown into the Bay by occupants of the Peloponnese in the Middle Ages.

But the discovery of a big column head and marble slabs led the Greek Archaeological Department to undertaken a search beneath the waves.

Their discovery: a city with temples and houses in ruins which could be seen through the water on calm day with clear sky. The city was Phia linked in ancient times to fabulous Olympia by a sacred road mentioned in Homer's writings.

Archaeologists believed the city was destroyed by earthquakes five centuries before Christ. Homer believed Phia existed between 1433-1283 BC.

Next Spring, the Archaeological Department hope to use underwater cameras to photograph the ruins and chart the foundations.