Close your eyes for a moment and imagine gliding down into the cool, navy-blue waters of the Dardanelles Strait. Just a few meters below you lies a giant ghost that witnessed one of the greatest turning points in world history, the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign. These giants, which have been waiting silently at the bottom of the sea for 111 years, are now the heart of not only history, but also a fascinating ecosystem.
So, what are we doing while global warming and climate change threaten these unique underwater museums? Right at this point, a tremendous project comes into play that will excite both history buffs and nature lovers: Deep Heritage.
A Technology Defying Time: Cathodic Protection
The Directorate of Gallipoli Historical Site of the Dardanelles Campaign and the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge and Motorway (ÇOK A.Ş.) joined hands and rolled up their sleeves to protect the world’s cultural heritage. The “Deep Heritage” project, the seeds of which were sown at the Boot Düsseldorf fair in January and brought to life as of this summer, takes shipwrecks under protection against corrosion (wear and tear) using a brand-new, eco-friendly method.
How, you ask? Through a system called cathodic protection! Thanks to special zinc anodes placed alongside the shipwrecks without causing any physical damage to them, rusting and decay are stopped. The best part of the job is that these wrecks continue to serve as safe “artificial reefs”—that is, habitats—for fish, sponges, and colorful marine organisms. Preserving history while giving life to nature must be precisely this!
First Date: HMS Louis at a Depth of 13 Meters
The first star of this massive project became the British destroyer HMS Louis, sleeping 13 meters beneath the waters north of Suvla Bay. Collision-struck with a tugboat in 1915 and run aground, painted to look like rocks to hide from Turkish artillerymen, this legendary ship donned the project’s first “cathodic shield.”
Recently, a tremendous diving crew submerged into the waters to witness this historic moment. Who wasn’t on the team? World-renowned Swedish photographer Alex Dawson, winner of the 2024 Underwater Photographer of the Year award, pressed his shutter to immortalize this moment; while our national pride Bilge Çingigiray, who entered the Guinness World Records by walking 81 meters underwater holding an 18-kilogram weight, performed a breathtaking freedive to HMS Louis.
“It Will Become One of the World’s Best Diving Centers”
This project is not merely a preservation effort, but also a vision that will carry Türkiye to the pinnacle of global dive tourism. As İsmail Kaşdemir, President of the Gallipoli Historical Site, emphasized; this is a project of universal responsibility. Currently, there are a total of 29 different dive spots in the Gallipoli Historic Underwater Park, 27 of which are shipwrecks.
Murat Sarıkaya, CFO of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge who supported the project, beautifully summarizes the situation: “We view sustainability not only as building the future, but as carrying the values entrusted to us from the past into the future by preserving them.”
Get Your Diving Goggles Ready!
If you are a diving enthusiast or interested in that mystical silence of the underwater world, Çanakkale should now be your number one destination. These shipwrecks, which are laboratories for scientists, homes for marine life, and the shared memory of human history, are now much safer thanks to the Deep Heritage project.
The Gallipoli Historic Underwater Park awaits you to touch this history awakening from its 111-year sleep, accompany the fish swimming around HMS Louis, and travel back in time in the cool waters of Çanakkale.
Don’t you think it’s time to take a look at history from underwater as well?
