The Yenikapı Excavations
Seen by yachtWORKS' partner pilot and photographer Murat ÖZTÜRK

Pilot and photographer Murat Öztürk is our in air service provider.

Reconnaissance, fast transport of people, perishable samples, standing by for suspicious vessel movements…. Murat is always available from his base of Hazerfen near Istanbul. In particular, if it is an exciting job like finding in the vast sea a hulk - declared as sunken long before.

yachtWORKS on aerial mission.

On a flight to a six hours destination he had to carry once his fuel to fly back on the rear seats. “No fuel available at many airstrips” he commented. “And I had to beat against headwinds all the time.” He added.

Murat has been kind enough to share his images of the Yenikapı excavations with us.

At Yenikapı, at the heart of Istanbul, a major discovery of oriental maritime history is taking place:

The Marmaray fast train construction under the Bosphorus and connecting Europe with Asia had to slow down for one of the most exciting archaeological projects of the world.

Not less than thirty two wrecks all over the history of this most major trade port have been discovered. A tsunami at this earthquake prone gateway to the Orient? Torrents of the Lycos/ Bayrampaşa river? Experts will have to work for decades on these problems.
The study of the wrecks discovered will shed light over the art of shipbuilding through history.