Scuba Diving - A Very Brief Timeline | Scuba Diving Blog

Today we plunge into the history of scuba diving, taking a quick tour through the various scientific and technological advances that have created the sport as we know it today.

• 500BCE - In early Greece and Rome, people would swim, dive, and breath-hold during underwater combat tournaments or while harvesting resources from under the water.

• ~470BCE - Greek sculptor Scyllis was captured by the Persians and held prisoner onboard a ship. He escaped by jumping overboard and using a hollow reed to swim 9 miles to rejoin his countrymen. This was the earliest snorkel!

• 332BCE - It was discovered that an upturned vessel would hold an amount of air within when submerged. Aristotle recorded the first use of a rudimentary diving bell used by Alexander the Great during the Siege of Tyre.

• 13thC. - Persian divers made the first goggles or masks from thinly sliced and polished tortoise shells.