INTERNATIONAL: The crusades of the middle ages are the stuff of myth and legend, despite also being historical fact, but very little of them survives to this day. That was until an amateur archaeologist discovered something very special on the Mediterranean seabed this week.

It’s been lost to the sands of time for almost a millennium and it was in the sand – at the bottom of the Mediterranean off the coast of the Israeli port city of Haifa - that it was found. The sword is believed to have belonged to a Crusader who sailed to the Holy Land in the 12th century to reclaim Jerusalem for Christianity.

The Israel Antiquities Authority says it was spotted by an amateur diver on Monday. Although it’s encrusted with marine organisms, the metre-long blade, hilt and handle are still distinctive...and its very heavy, says Yaakov Sharvit, who is head of Marine Archaeology at the Israel Antiquities Authority:

"We are also assuming that this Crusader knight was belong to the community of knights that were sitting on the citadel of Atlit because it's not so far from there and we are assuming right now, because it's the beginning of the research, we have to clean it, we have to to X-ray before that, and then we will get some more information about the sword. Maybe there is a name written on it, maybe there is a decoration and that will also give us more information about the knight who held this beautiful sword."

The sword, believed to be some 900 years old, will be put on display after it is cleaned and restored.