Best place to scuba dive on Pag: Newly found shipwreck (2021)

Have you ever seen an underwater ship with more than 400 amphorae? You must come to Pag. The Adriatic Sea is one of the best places to scuba dive, and Pag has just become a champion in the category. A rare 2000-year-old underwater finding has been discovered only 130 metres from the shore, in Cape Letavica, very close to our Camping Village Šimuni.

This truly incredible archaeological treasure was discovered in 2018 by Vedran Dorušić, the owner and instructor at Foka Diving Centre in Šimuni, and his friend Igor Savić. We suppose all divers dream of finding underwater shipwrecks, but are also aware that the chances for this are incredibly small. And the chances of finding a first-century-B.C. Roman shipwreck with neatly organised amphorae, right next to your own diving centre? Next to zero. Vedran is one lucky guy.

And we are lucky that it was these good people who made this remarkable discovery because the locality is safe, protected from theft or other ill intentions, and waiting for you to dive in and see ancient history with your own eyes.

Straton Project

The site was named Straton, after a writing found on one of the three anchors discovered at the location. All three anchors have been related to the same sunken ship as the writings on them match. A team of archaeologists, researchers and volunteers are working to discover more details of the story and, of course, share their discoveries with the public.

The amphorae

Because of the location of the three anchors and the remains of the ship, situated at a bay sheltered from bora, it is believed that strong bora wind was the cause of this centuries-old tragedy. The sailors had attempted to guide the ship into safety, but the bora was too strong. The ship sank to a depth of around 38 metres and, luckily for us today, the cargo did not fall out of the ship, but the whole ship sank together to the bottom. Because of this, all the amphorae are well-preserved and concentrated at a single pile, just like they had been on the surface. The length of the pile points to a ship that was 25-30 metres long.

If you want to learn more about this amazing discovery and see it for yourself, you are more than welcome to come to our Camping Village Šimuni and from here you can explore the whole island of Pag, both above and below.