The discovery was made by researchers from the Faculty of Archaeology at the University of Warsaw, who resumed work at the site in 2023 after a 13-year break caused by Libya’s civil war.

According to the team, the wreck area extends for more than 100 meters, suggesting that several ships, not just one, were lost there over time while approaching the ancient port from the east.

Piotr Jaworski, who heads the Ptolemais research project, said the length of the wreck field made clear that the area had seen repeated maritime disasters.

Ptolemais was one of the largest ancient Greek cities in Cyrenaica, a historical region in what is now northeastern Libya.