On Wednesday Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to the Taman Peninsula in Krasnodar region to perform yet another of his trademark adventure activities and scuba dive at a site known as the Russian Atlantis.

      

      During his visit of an excavation of an ancient Greek city of Phanagoria in south Russia, the Prime Minister could not resist the temptation to take part in some research to shed light on the fate of the historic site. 

      Putin was shown around a nearby excavation site, starting with the Boyur Gora man-made mound dating back to the 4th century BC. The mound is 10-11 meters high and about 100 meters in diameter. With the help of a young student archaeologist, Putin even picked up a fragment of a handle from an ancient amphora. He asked the archaeologists to let him take it as a remembrance.

      

      Then Vladimir Putin put on a diving suit and dived deep into the Taman Bay where, to everyone’s utter surprise, he managed to find two ancient amphorae dating back to the 6th century AD. Putin said he had seen at a depth of about two meters – the sea was still and the water transparent.
      

The Prime Minister suggested that the excavation should become an underwater museum. "Mankind will be interested to learn that we have such riches," Putin said. "I believe people will come from all over the world."
      

Phanagoria was once the largest Greek colony on the Taman Peninsula, spreading on two plateaus along the Asian shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus. Now the Phanagoria archaeological project is funded by the Russian Geographical Society, led by Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu.
      

Besides the deep diving, Putin has already tried himself at whale hunting, figure skating, F1 car driving and even extinguishing forest fires. 

Sources: RIA Novosti Russia Today
      

Read more: Russian Archaelogy, Travel and Transportation, On the History of Russian Archeology
Author: Julia Shuvalova