Inland, belonging to the Atlantic Ocean basin, the Black Sea washes the shores of various countries, including Russia, and is not only the largest Eurasian center of resorts, but also an important transport artery and military-strategic base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It washes the shores of Turkey and Georgia, as well as Abkhazia, which many countries consider part of Georgian land, although it is a separate territorial-state entity.
Among the characteristics, the depth of the Black Sea is very important. Thanks to the Bosphorus Strait, it has a connection with the Sea of Marmara, and through the Kerch Strait - with the Sea of Azov. On the northern side, it washes the shores of the Crimean peninsula, and the border between Asia Minor and Europe stretches along its surface. Data on the total area is ambiguous. In some sources, it is equal to 422 thousand square kilometers, in others - 436.4 thousand square kilometers. Along the largest axis, it stretched for almost a thousand two hundred kilometers, and from south to north its maximum length is five hundred and eightykilometers.
The exact answer to the question of what is the maximum depth of the Black Sea, almost no one gives. Scientists have been doing research for many years. The depth of the Black Sea is considered to be two thousand two hundred and ten meters. The average value is determined to be approximately one thousand two hundred and forty meters. At a depth exceeding one hundred and fifty to two hundred meters, in addition to the colonies of some anaerobic microorganisms, there are no living creatures and plants. All these huge deep layers of water are oversaturated with hydrogen sulfide, which prevents the development of living beings, even mollusks, because they need oxygen for development. And the depth of the Black Sea does not contain oxygen in the water column. Therefore, sunken ships have been preserved in it without damage for thousands of years.
The trade routes of ships from different states passed through the Crimea for three millennia. Historians and archaeologists claim that most of the sea voyages through the waters of this sea ended in shipwrecks, the causes of which were strong winds. Judging by the findings of archaeologists, the relief of the bottom of the Black Sea between the Crimean Peninsula, Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria is replete with sunken ships buried in the abyss of water.
Divers who carry out their professional activities in the Crimea are well aware of this. Many sites of very ancient shipwrecks have already been plundered, and photographs of the finds are being actively published on the Web. Ifthe state would not be idle, but would organize scientific expeditions, just as it was done in Turkey, then our museums would be replenished with very valuable exhibits. Turkey, on the other hand, invested money in such a project and extracted many valuable exhibits from the bottom of the sea, which served as the basis for the opening of an underwater archeology center, which today attracts tourists from all over the world.
I really hope that the depths of the Black Sea will soon reveal its richest potential to state underwater archaeologists, and finds from the ships of Byzantium will delight visitors to our museums, as wildlife pleases them today.
