No. 132

Kyrenia ship

Where

Cyprus

Built by

Greek merchants

Era

about 300 BCE

Known for

A hull preserved well enough to build a sailing replica.

How it went under

It sank close to shore.

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Background

The Kyrenia Shipwreck is a 4th-century BC ancient Greek merchant ship that sank c. 294 BC.

The Kyrenia wreck was discovered by Greek-Cypriot diving instructor Andreas Cariolou in November 1965 during a storm. Having lost the exact position, Cariolou carried out more than 200 dives until he re-discovered the wreck in 1967 close to Kyrenia (Keryneia) in Cyprus. Michael Katzev, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, directed a scientific excavation from 1967 to 1969. Katzev later became a co-founder of the American Institute of Nautical Archaeology. The find was extensively covered in a documentary by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation titled "With Captain, Sailors Three: The Ancient Ship of Kyrenia". The ship itself was very well preserved with more than half its hull timbers in good condition.

After it was raised from the seabed, it found a new home at the Ancient Shipwreck Museum in Kyrenia Castle, where it remains on exhibit.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.