Divers find Ptolemaic era Roman wreck off Cape Greco

Cyprus Mail (Jean Christou)



Another somewhat tenuous link to Egyptology, but this ship wreck may be of interest to those studying Ptolemaic Egypt.

Archaeologists have found a Roman wreck dating from the first century A.D. off Cape Greco towards the Protaras area, it emerged yesterday. . . .

According to Diodoros, it was somewhere in the area, where in 306BC the Macedonian Demetrios the Poliorketes triumphed over Ptolemy of Egypt in one of the largest naval engagements of antiquity. Although Ptolemy eventually victoriously returned, thus controlling the island through the rest of the Hellenistic period, nearly a hundred warships were reported as sunk during the combat.“Hence, the course of the survey of archaeologists working in deeper waters offshore, far from the coastline appears to be hopeful,” the archaeologists concluded.

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