A Saudi Titanic in the Red Sea preceded the famous by 200 years!

The Saudi Heritage Authority announced the success of a sunken antiquities exploration mission led by 5 Saudi divers from the authority, in discovering the wreck of a sunken ship in the Red Sea off the coast of Haql Governorate, and finding hundreds of artifacts that were part of the ship's cargo.

The team specialized in surveying the submerged heritage in the Red Sea was able to locate the wreck of the ship, which is 300 meters from the shore.

The initial reports, according to "Al Arabiya Net", indicate that the ship may have had a collision with coral reefs that led to the scattering of its parts and the fall of its cargo, while the evidence revealed that the ship's voyage was in the late eighteenth century AD, a period that was known for many sea trade trips at sea. The pottery pieces that were found are mostly of the type of "amphora" manufactured in the cities of the Mediterranean basin.

Which brought to mind the story of the famous Titanic, which hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean during the night between 14 and 15 April 1912, and sank to the bottom, killing at least 1,500 of its passengers.

It is noteworthy that the survey and excavation work for sunken antiquities in the waters of the Red Sea, which was initiated by the authority in cooperation with international universities and research centers, resulted in the presence of more than 50 sunken shipwreck sites along the Red Sea that vary in their historical and archaeological value and their time periods, as it emphasizes commercial relations. And the ancient economy of the coasts of the Kingdom, its activity and its cultural connection with neighboring regions.

The joint Saudi-Italian mission in 2015-2016 had previously found a sunken ship wreck at a site near the city of Umluj, which included part of the ship’s own planks made of oak and pine, containing a group of pottery bowls and cups of Chinese porcelain, in addition to broken glass bottles. And metal bowls, dating back to the middle of the eighteenth century AD.

The joint Saudi-German team to survey the submerged heritage sites on the West Coast, which began its field work from 2012 to 2017, also found the remains of a Roman shipwreck in the Red Sea.

So far, it is the oldest wreck of an ancient ship found along the Saudi coast, in addition to another shipwreck dating back to the first Islamic era, in the area between Rabigh in the north to Shuaiba in the south, which confirms that the coasts of the Kingdom are rich in this cumulative heritage, which made the Commission double Its efforts in discovering these treasures, with the help of high-level international houses of expertise.

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