Téléscaphe

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Remains of the Téléscaphe from 1967: foundation and pulleys (2008)

The Téléscaphe, also called Téléscaphe de Callelongue, was a cable car where you could dive into the sea with the cable car cabins like a submarine . Téléscaphe is a suitcase word from “téléphérique” (German aerial tramway ) and “scaphandre” (German deep diving suit, see Skaphander ).

The facility, inaugurated in June 1967, ran in a Mediterranean bay between the districts of Les Goudes and Callelongue of Marseille ( 8th arrondissement (Marseille) France ).

The French ski racer James Couttet and the cable car designer Denis Creissels came up with the idea of ​​making the seabed accessible to the general public. Construction in the bay began in 1966 and was realized with the help of the city of Marseille and the École des Ponts ParisTech .

Two cabins accommodated 4 people each.

For an amount of 12 French francs , guests were able to submerge 10 m deep for ten minutes on a 500 m long route and observe the underwater world. 60 people could be transported per hour. After the dive, the participants were issued a certificate.

The Téléscaphe was only in operation for one year - until May 1968 - and was shut down by a political decision due to a number of accidents and the associated (repair) costs. Remnants such as the drive wheels can still be seen today.

literature

  • Pierre Montaz: L'Aventure du transport by cable . Ed .: Fondation FACIM. 2009, ISBN 978-2-9533505-3-1 (160 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Henri Carrier: Tourisme sous l'eau. (video) 1969, accessed January 22, 2014 (French).
  2. ↑ The inventor's website in French
  3. ^ Underwater cable car - Téléscaphe de Callelongue - Marseille, France
  4. ↑ Diving in Provence , in English (on the website below)

Coordinates: 43 ° 12 ′ 40.7 "  N , 5 ° 21 ′ 2.5"  E