Over 1,000 vessels on seabed
Greece’s territorial waters harbor over 1,000 shipwrecks, according to announcements at a conference held by the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities and the Greek Marine Research Center, which during six years of joint efforts have found about 35 wrecks. Roman Most of these date from Roman times, but they also include Byzantine, Late Classical, post-Byzantine and more recent wrecks. Some of the most impressive finds include a sarcophagus near the island of Astypalaia containing 50,000 coins (which had been destined to pay the Roman legions) and a Byzantine wreck at a depth of 130 meters off Halkidiki (where Xerxes’s fleet was found). In the narrows between the islands of Chios and Oinouses, unbroken commercial amphorae were found at a depth of 70 meters. «But there are no wrecks that have not been looted,» according to Katerina Delaporta, head of the ephorate.
