The Kyrenia Shipwreck chamber contains the remains of the oldest shipwreck recovered from Cypriot waters. This wooden-hulled (Aleppo pine) Greek merchant ship sank off the Kyrenia coast around 300 BC, and was discovered by a local diver in 1967. Its cargo consisted of amphorae, almonds, grain, wine and millstones from the Greek islands of Samos, Rhodes and Kos. Its crew most likely traded along the coast of Anatolia and as far as the islands of the Dodecanese in Greece.
Evidence suggests that the boat, 80 years old at the time, sank because of piracy. Much of its cargo seems to have been plundered, and it has what appear to be spear marks in its hull. A curse tablet was also found with the wreck. At the time, pirates believed that placing these tablets on a sinking ship would conceal its fate, by keeping the wreck forever at the bottom of the sea.
An excellent modern reconstruction of the ship (using the same materials) can be viewed in Agia Napa’s Thalassa Municipal Museum of the Sea.
