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This dive site is situated west of the Kyrenia Castle aand directly off shore from the historic Dome Hotel. First opened in the 1930's, the Dome is a relic of the colonial days when the sun never set onthe British Empire. If you tire of diving you can head for the Dome and bask in the colonical glory of the Empire and reminisce about days gone by.
Enough reminiscing and back to diving. This dive will not set the world on fire but it is fun to play around the cockpit and speculate about its origins. It is also a great photo opportunity. If you yearn to have you picture taken as you play underwater pilot inside the cockpit at 30 meters under, this is your chance. This is not a challenging dive. As long as manages their bottom time and buoyancy control beginners should feel quite comfortable exploring the cockpit and the anchor.
As you enter the water you will descend slowly to the cockpit. It sits on the sandy bottom in 30to 32 meters of water. There is not much else to see but sand and the cockpit.
The cockpit is completely intact and empty of any interesting instrumentation or other artifacts. The window remain and the cockpit is large and circular and hence easy to enter with no concern about getting hung up on bits and pieces of wreckage. There are no identification marks on the cockpit. We were able to research the shape and layout of the windows and identify it as a Russians Tupolev aircraft. A.N. Tupolev was thefather of Russian aviation and kept the Russian air force well supplied with high performance advanced aircraft designs during the Cold War days. The Tupolev designed planes in their day were key to the Russians maintaining strategic parity (or perhaps madness) with the United States.
The anchor lies about fifty meters from the cockpit. It too is lying by itself in the sand. There are no other pieces of wreckage. It is a large anchor and appears to be old. We have not been able to identify its origins or even put a date on it.
That concludes the Cockpit and Anchor dive. It is a fun afternoon dive and a great photo opportunity of some unusual pieces on the sea bottom. |
