10 most spectacular shipwrecks from different parts of the world

Ships are created for the seas and oceans and often serve people to the last, finding their last refuge there. But not all of them suffer the fate of the sunken Titanic — many remain on the surface and serve for decades as a reminder of man's careless attitude to the environment.

Although there is a positive point in this — steamships, barges and battleships are becoming unique tourist attractions that attract fans of apocalyptic landscapes and picturesque steel ruins.

There are several thousand abandoned ships in the world. And these are only those whose location is known to researchers. You can meet an abandoned merchant or passenger ship, a warship or a tanker among the reefs in the open ocean, on the sandy beaches of islands, on coastal rocks and even in the desert, which is separated from the surf line by tens of kilometers of sand.

Get acquainted with the most picturesque ruins, which have long been places of pilgrimage for photographers and connoisseurs of unusual monuments of human activity.

The dilapidated skeleton of a Greek ship can be seen on the beach of Valtaki in Gifio, in the very south of the Peloponnese. It has been in the eternal parking lot of "Dimitrios" since December 1981, after it ran aground and was abandoned by the crew. The exact history of this attraction is unknown — some say that the crew was smuggling cigarettes, others that the ship was illegally transporting antiques between Italy and Greece.

One thing is certain — the history of the Dimitrios is connected with illegal fishing, so the owners of the vessel did not try to save it or at least cut it up for scrap and sell it as recyclable.

The transport ship was built at the shipyards of Great Britain in 1911, but in 1912 it left for Sydney, Australia. During the Second World War, the SS Ayrfield was used to transport supplies for the army and played an important role in the Allied victory over Japan in the Pacific Ocean.

It is not known exactly why the old man was abandoned in the bay in view of Sydney, but the fact remains that a pile of scrap metal has turned into a floating rainforest for more than 70 years, beloved by tourists who are greedy for exotics.

A German ship ran aground in September 1909 with a cargo of valuable equipment for diamond mines on board. It happened at the famous Skeleton Coast, where many wrecks of shipwrecks have been preserved, to which you can walk without getting your feet wet.

The Namib desert is intensively advancing on the ocean in this area, so now the steamer is almost half a kilometer from the water. This is one of the most inaccessible objects of this kind — to see the skeleton of the Eduard Bohlen, you need not only to cross the desert, but also to convince the local authorities that you desperately need to see this steamer, located in a protected area.

This relatively recent tourist site appeared on the maps of attractions less than 20 years ago. Built in 1975, the passenger liner split the starboard side of the reef not marked on the maps and gave a strong roll.

The captain managed to steer the ship to the shore and carefully lay it stranded with its damaged side. Victims were avoided, but the "World Discoverer" was no longer subject to repair. Interestingly, the liner that died off the coast of the jungle-covered island was created for cruises in polar waters.

Cargo ship "Gallant Lady", Bahamas.

The Gallant Lady hit the rocks in the southern part of the Bimini Archipelago during a storm several decades ago and has remained an important tourist attraction ever since.

The once elegant snow-white vessel today is an excellent illustration of how sea water ruthlessly deals with human creations.

The ship was launched in 1940 and managed to walk around the world's oceans, happily avoiding serious accidents. But in 1994, luck turned against the liner and it crashed off the coast of the island of Fuerteventura.

Until 2007, America looked pretty good, but then the starboard side of the ship rusted and collapsed. After the waves were able to freely manage in the holds of the liner, it began to collapse literally before our eyes and today the giant is a very deplorable sight.

In 1968, a ship loaded with gifts for the Allies was sent to South America on the instructions of the Spanish dictator Franco. On board the "Cabo Santa Maria" there were expensive cars, clothes, food and elite wines.

The gifts never reached the addressee, as the ship was wrecked off the island of Boavista and its cargo was mostly stolen by local residents. But now the skeleton of the steamer is one of the symbols of Cape Verde and attracts romantics and artists.

The 200-meter warship of the Russian Navy ran aground off the coast of Norway in 1994. Experts have calculated that the transportation and repair of the Murmansk is impractical, so the giant was left to rot on foreign shores.

Now the battleship is an important local attraction, which tens of thousands of tourists from all over the world come to see every year.

A shipwreck involving this vessel occurred in 1979 in the small bay of Livero on the island of Amorgos. Fortunately, there were no casualties and even the cargo managed to be transported ashore.

"Olympia" is located near the shore, with a strong roll to starboard and is adored by vacationers and local boys. Since the bay of Livero is quite calm, the probability that the ship will delight everyone with its picturesque skeleton for a long time is very high.

The Panamanian ship, laid down at a Swedish shipyard in 1952, crashed into the reefs on September 29, 1981. For several days the crew tried to save the "Lulia", but then people had to leave its side so as not to endanger themselves.

Now the skeleton of the vessel attracts divers who explore its holds, firmly embedded in a picturesque tropical reef and inhabited by beautiful marine life.