The Hellenic Trench: the deep water beyond the beach

Swim out from Sougia beach and the water turns from turquoise to a deep, saturated blue within a few metres. Further out, the sea floor keeps falling. Off the south coast of Crete runs the Hellenic Trench, an arc of deep water about a thousand kilometres long, from the Ionian Sea to near Rhodes.

Its deepest point, the Calypso Deep, 5,109 metres, lies along its western arm off the Peloponnese, and it is the deepest place in the Mediterranean. South of Crete, the trench reaches more than three thousand metres in places.

Who lives down there

The Hellenic Trench is an Important Marine Mammal Area, listed for two species above all: the sperm whale, of which only about 200 to 250 remain in the eastern Mediterranean, and Cuvier’s beaked whale, the deepest-diving mammal known. Striped, Risso’s and bottlenose dolphins live here too.

Each of our eleven rooms is named after one creature of the Greek seas. Seven of them live in these waters. Four are rare visitors, and we say so.

Meet the eleven: the rooms of AVYSSOS →

If you meet them

At sea, the ACCOBAMS guidelines ask boats never to approach dolphins or whales closer than 100 metres on purpose, to slow to 5 knots or less within 300 metres, to come from the side rather than head-on or from behind, and to stay about 15 minutes before leaving. Do not swim with them.

If you find a monk seal resting on the beach, stay at least 30 metres away and keep children and dogs back. Never feed it or throw anything at it, and do not block its way back to the sea. Call the Port Police and MOm, even if the seal seems hurt or dead: +30 210 522 2888, 24 hours.

Each of our eleven rooms carries the name of one of these creatures. Meet them all on the Residence page.