Bodrums Underwater Archaeology Museum

The Castle of St Peter (Bodrum Castle) houses the excellent Museum of Underwater Archaelogy which received a special commendation in 1995 as a European Museum of the Year. The museum is not however underwater! The museum exhibits several collections of ancient artifacts including relics retrieved from local shipwrecks.
Many of the items found, tourists can touch and feel and read about them.
Each shipwreck in the museum takes their names from the area that they were found and the items that they were carrying can be seen in the display cabinets.
In the upper courtyard there are two showrooms with marvellous examples of glass from 14th BC to 11th AD most of which were found in the ship wrecks near Yassiada.
One of the richest finds was the wreck at Ulu Burun discovered by a sponge diver Mehmet Cakir. The explorations took 10 years due to the depth of the wreck, the stern being at 45 metres and the bow at 52 metres, although it was only 63 metres from the shore. Many of the artefacts needed to be chiselled out by hand due to the layer of concretion that covered the site. The boat used Greco-Roman techniques of building the shell first and fitting the frame to it. This wreck has been dated back to 14th century BC in the late Bronze Age with a cargo of copper ingots and various objects originating from different parts of ancient world.
The Museum of Underwater Archaeology is perhaps Bodrum's finest attraction.
The combined efforts of local Bodrum sponge divers, the turkish ministry of Culture, the Institute of Nautical Archaeology and the Director and Personnel of the museum have created and continually support the ongoing efforts to preserve and present the past treasures of the deep.

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