For as long as humans have inhabited Malta there has been sailing in one form or another. Before the invention of planes, the sea was the only route by which people, goods and ideas could be exchanged. With this came the threats of war, piracy, and Mother Nature. Not every ship that sailed to and from the island survived these threats, and some now lie dormant at the bottom of the sea, waiting to be discovered.
For the past decade the University of Malta, together with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, has carried out a systematic survey of the seabed off Malta and Gozo, in search of objects of historical significance. Sites discovered vary from a 2700-year-old Phoenician shipwreck, the oldest in the central Mediterranean, to dozens of aircraft crash sites and from early modern shipwrecks to battleships from World War I and II.
Superyacht owners with manned submersibles will soon have the opportunity to explore some incredible deep-water wrecks off the coast of Malta and Gozo.
This is being made possible through Heritage Malta’s newly formed Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit (UCHU).
Ancient underwater discovery
One of the most incredible sites to be made available to manned submersibles is located off Xlendi Bay, Gozo, in what must be one of the most spectacular coastlines of the Mediterranean. A high concentration of rare and important archaeological artifacts including amphorae (storage vessel with two handles often used to transport olive oil) and other objects such as flagons, jugs, urns, and bowls are located in waters that range between 95m and 115m in depth.
This area extends over an area covering c. 67,000 square meters. Guests within the submersible may observe objects that were last seen over two thousand years ago when ancient mariners loaded these onto the ship. In fact, many of the objects date to the Punic Wars (around 300-146BC) - a time of turmoil when the Carthaginian and Roman Empires fought for supremacy in the Mediterranean. History just doesn’t get much better than this!
