One side in the port of Urla shows a familiar Mediterranean picture.

Fishing boats and small yachts are moored in the semicircle in front of the fish restaurants.

On the other side, strong stilts support three ships that seem to have fallen out of time.

Mualla Erkurt and her husband Osman built it.

Since 2004 they have been replicating historical ships in Urla on the coast of Asia Minor - and also demonstrating their seaworthiness.

"We want to be an eco-museum," says Mualla Erkurt, "with historic ships you can touch."

Rainer Herman

Editor in Politics.

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They have already completed three exhibits: a cargo sailing ship, as it sank in 1300 BC off what is now Kas on Turkey's Mediterranean coast;

an Ionian war galley dated to 600 BC;

and a ship used by Phoenician traders and seafarers in the Mediterranean in 400 BC.

Behind them, under a tent roof, work is being done on an unfinished wooden ship's hull.

And in another tent is an impressive collection of historic ship anchors.

The place, which is unique in Turkey, is visited by school classes and tourists.

Workshops give those interested an insight into ancient shipping.

Archaeologists from Europe and North America come to Urla to practice marine archaeology.

But officially the museum, although it is such, is not allowed to call itself that.

The founders Mualla and Osman Erkurt are from Istanbul.

They studied prehistoric archeology in their hometown.

They turned their backs on the metropolis on the Bosphorus in 2004 and discovered Urla.

At that time, the small port town west of Izmir was still an insider tip.

Since then, however, many who have grown tired of the noisy big city have settled in the idyllic Mediterranean landscape between olive groves and vineyards.

In 2004, the Erkurts were 43 and 44 years old.

At that time, hardly any research had been done in Turkey on shipping in ancient times.

They wanted to change that, so they founded the "360 Degree Historical Research Association" in Urla and dedicated themselves to experimental archaeology.

"Shipping began in the eastern Mediterranean," says Mualla Erkurt.

"We wanted to know what the ships were like back then, which routes they took, how the ports were equipped."

The couple began researching and experimenting.

The Erkurts attracted like-minded people, consulted naval architects and won renowned archaeologists, for example from the University of Texas.

She was particularly fascinated by how the shipbuilders of the time managed to get by without nails and only work with dowels made of wood.

And they found sponsors.

Because what they did as pioneers was outside of what Turkish higher education funds.

Their first project was to replicate a cargo ship that sank 3,300 years ago off the Uluburun headland near Kas on Turkey's southern coast.

Hobby divers discovered the wreck of the oldest ship known to date in 1982, and two years later the salvage began.

Today the Bodrum Underwater Museum exhibits the wreck and the cargo found - and it was impressive: the 15 meter long and five meter wide cargo ship could transport up to 20 tons.

When he sank he had loaded ten tons of copper ingots from Cyprus, as well as tin ingots, amber, jars, bronze objects, seals (one attributed to Nefertiti), as well as luxury goods such as ebony and hippopotamus teeth, Mycenaean pottery, but also olives and figs.

What was previously only known from cuneiform writing was documented by the sunken ship: