Ancient Wrecks
The Greek vessel of Kyrenia 306 B.C.
The wreck of the ancient merchant ship was found less than a mile northeast of the town of Kyrenia, Cyprus.
The study of the wreck and its cargo has shown that the Kyrenia ship, having served merchants throughout most of the fourth century, was at least eighty years old when it sank, about 306 BC.
The cargo of the ship mainly consisted of 400 amphoras, wine, almonds and millstones.
Michael Katzev, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, directed a salvage expedition from 1967-69. Preservation of the ship's timbers continued during the winter of 1970. Katzev later was a co-founder of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. The find was extensively covered in a documentary by the National Geographic Society. It is the only preserved ship from Greece's Classical Age. The ship was considered to be very well preserved with approximately 75% of it in good condition. It found a new home at the Ancient Shipwreck Museum in Kyrenia Castle.
The ship sailed in the Mediterranean during the life time of Alexander the Great and his successors. She sank in open waters less than a mile from the anchorage of Kyrenia. The evidence point to her being taken by rough seas around the year 300 BC, when she was rather old, though piracy is becoming more likely[1].
In 1974 Turkey occupied Kyrenia, and the rest of Northern Cyprus. The ship remained in the Museum in Kyrenia Castle one may still visit it there.
The ancient Ship of Kyrenia was a small Greek trade vessel carrying a cargo of wine in Rhodian amphorae (left), and sunk North of Kyrenia around 306 B.C.
The hull (below) was about 15m long, and was protected from fouling by a lead cover. The wreck lies on a sandy bottom at a depth of -30m; a large part of the hull has been well preserved by sediments, together with the complete cargo, including almands and several hundreds of amphorae.
The Phoenician trade vessel of Melkarth VI Century B.C.
The Phoenician vessel found off Melkarth was an ancient trade vessel carrying a cargo of amphorae, possibly sunk during the VI Century B.C. The hull was discovered and explored by means of a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle), an unmanned submarine, and lies at very high depth West of Cyprus.
Roman Shipwreck off Coast of Cyprus was Carrying French Wine