Shipwreck Museum

The Shipwreck displayed within the Kyrenia Shipwreck Museum, is one of the most ancient Shipwrecks ever discovered. Research suggests that the ship was a Syrian commercial ship which sank due to a storm in 300 BC. The ship set sail in the Mediterranean during the life time of Alexander the Great and sank in open waters less than a mile from Kyrenia.

The ship was salvaged in 1969. The ship's wooden hull which was well preserved in the sand on the sea bed was first mapped and labeled and lifted in pieces to the surface.

The objects in the Shipwreck Museum are the original contents that were carried by it on the ship's last voyage in 300 BC. We can learn a lot from these objects about the life of the traders in that time. The main cargo found in the wreck of the ship is 400 wine amphora's, which were mostly made in Rhodes, which indicate the trade points and trade routes of the ship.

The other ports of call of the ship are suggested by ten distinct amphora’s which were local to areas such as Samos in the North. Other cargo on board was about 9000 pieces of Almonds in jars and also in the hull of the ship!

From the make up of the cargo of the ship it can be assumed that the ship had set sail southwards along the coast of Anatolia, Samos, Kos and Rhodes before continuing eastwards to her final burial in Kyrenia, Cyprus.

Conservation work on the Shipwreck Museum was started in 1970 and finished in 1974. Better part of the conservation effort was completed after the formation of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and was finally completed in 1976.