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Türkiye is internationally known for ancient cities, Byzantine monuments and Ottoman landmarks, yet some of its most significant archaeological evidence remains hidden beneath the sea, where hundreds of shipwrecks are helping researchers piece together ancient trade routes linking Anatolia with the Aegean, Levant and Egypt.
More than 430 shipwrecks have already been documented along Türkiye's Mediterranean coast alone, according to Hakan Oniz, an underwater archaeologist at Akdeniz University in Antalya.
The number of documented shipwrecks is "amazing," Oniz said, and that's true not only for Türkiye but worldwide.
With more than 8,300 kilometers of coastline facing the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black seas, Türkiye sits across maritime corridors that carried merchants, raw materials and luxury goods for thousands of years.
The country's role in underwater archaeology stretches back to one of the discipline's defining moments.
The Cape Gelidonya shipwreck, first spotted by a Turkish sponge diver in the 1950s and excavated off Antalya by American archaeologist George Bass in 1960, is widely regarded as the world's first ancient shipwreck to be scientifically excavated directly on the seabed.
Oniz, however, argues that Türkiye's connection to underwater archaeology goes even further back.
"In a way, Türkiye is the birthplace of underwater archaeology," he said. "However, the Ottoman Empire conducted underwater excavations 70 years before George Bass."
In 1891, during the Ottoman period, divers were hired to search for antiquities around Farmakonisi, also known as Bulamac Island, following instructions linked to Osman Hamdi Bey, the painter, archaeologist and founding director of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums.
Objects recovered during the work were sent to Istanbul, while some of the gold coins discovered there remain in the city's collections.
The legal groundwork was also unusually early. The Ottoman antiquities regulation known as Asar-i Atika, introduced in 1884, treated archaeological material recovered from the sea as state property and restricted its unauthorized removal from Ottoman territory.
Among Türkiye's most famous underwater discoveries is the Uluburun wreck off Kas, which was discovered in 1982 and excavated over 11 years.
Its cargo offered a striking picture of Bronze Age trade, including around 10 tons of copper, 1 ton of tin, glass ingots, ebony, elephant and hippopotamus ivory, and a gold scarab bearing the name of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.
Other discoveries suggest that this maritime network was active even earlier.
Near the Kekova islands, archaeologists are investigating an Early Bronze Age wreck carrying Levantine-type amphorae, while another wreck off Kumluca, around 3,600 years old, was carrying copper ingots believed to have come from Cyprus.
Oniz maintains that both wrecks predate Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya, pushing back the archaeological evidence for large-scale maritime connections in the region.
Researchers are using vessels equipped with remotely operated underwater vehicles, or ROVs, to reach wrecks lying tens of meters below the surface.
Another excavation off Adrasan is providing a different view of Mediterranean commerce.
The so-called Ceramic Wreck has been dated to the late Hellenistic or early Roman period and was carrying hundreds of plates, bowls and trays, packed in raw clay to protect them during a voyage from Rhosus near Antioch toward Rome.
A coin recovered from the wreck helped researchers narrow its date to around the middle of the first century B.C., when Roman statesman Cicero governed the nearby province of Cilicia.
"It's very exciting," Oniz said.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy also announced the discovery of 122 different forms and sizes of plates, bowls and trays at the site, reflecting luxury dining practices of the period.
Some of Türkiye's largest maritime discoveries have emerged not from the sea, but from beneath modern cities.
Construction of Istanbul's Marmaray rail project uncovered the buried remains of the Byzantine-era Theodosian Harbour at Yenikapi, where archaeologists recovered 37 shipwrecks dating from the fifth to the 11th centuries.
The site became the largest known collection of medieval ships uncovered in a single excavation and also revealed traces of a Neolithic settlement dating back about 8,000 years.
The discovery showed how maritime archaeology in Türkiye extends far beyond isolated shipwrecks, connecting ancient ports, urban development and long-term settlement history.
The expansion of underwater excavations is now being matched by efforts to display the discoveries.
The Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology, established in 1964, remains Türkiye's main museum dedicated to the field and houses finds from wrecks including Uluburun, Yassiada and Serce Limani.
A Mediterranean Underwater Archaeology Museum is also under construction at the ancient site of Idyros in Antalya's Kemer district, while Istanbul's historic Haydarpasa railway station is being redeveloped around a proposed "Four Seas Museum" concept.
The Istanbul project is expected to focus on Türkiye's maritime heritage across the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black seas, with roughly 10,000 square meters of exhibition space and an archaeological park.
The underwater projects also form part of the Culture and Tourism Ministry's Legacy to the Future program, launched in 2023. By 2025, the initiative covered 255 excavation sites across 65 provinces and had brought more than 15,000 finds into the scientific record.
At the same time, Türkiye continues efforts to recover artifacts taken abroad, with more than 26,000 cultural objects repatriated since 1980.
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