An Italian spa
complex has just opened a swimming pool certified by the Guinness Book of
Records as the world's deepest.
Named the Y-40 Deep
Joy, the pool is now the star attraction at the Hotel Millepini, located in the
Montegrotto Terme resort area, near Venice.
This isn't the kind
of facility aimed at jaded business travelers hoping to cram in a few laps
before they head upstairs to order room service.
Deep Joy features a
shaft that plunges down ...
And down ...
And down until it
hits a depth of 42 meters (138 feet), a space that could easily
accommodate a
13-story building.
Designed by architect
Emanuele Boaretto and a year in the making, Deep Joy is expected to attract
scuba enthusiasts and freedivers -- aquatic athletes whose incredible lung
control allows them to spend minutes at depth on a single breath.
The pool is filled
with 4.3 million liters (1.1 million gallons) of thermal water from local
springs, allowing divers to plunge without the skin suits they'd need in open
seas or lakes.
It also contains
underwater caves aimed at training scuba divers to negotiate sub-aquatic
landscapes.
There's also a
suspended transparent viewing tunnel that allows spectators to watch the divers
in action.
Deep Joy was
inaugurated earlier this year at a ceremony in which Italian world freediving
champions Umberto Pelizzari and Ilaria Molinari (who dressed like a mermaid for
the occasion) plumbed its depths.
The pool's creators
hope it will transform Montegrotto Terme into an international diving center
and raise the profile of what is said to be Europe's largest area of thermal
springs.
It'll also be open to
beginners who want to experience its depths under supervision.
Just don't drop your
locker key.
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