This small sea area between Europe and Africa is the site of 124 shipwrecks, archaeologists find | CNN

Like the Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Gibraltar, which lies between the southern tip of Europe and the northwestern tip of Africa, holds a history of shipping and conflict in its waters. A lot of the archaeological evidence for this sits to the east of the strait, in the Bay of Algeciras, also known as the Bay of Gibraltar — a stopping-off point for transatlantic shipping, nowadays mainly of oil. Spanish archaeologists say they identified 151 underwater archaeological sites, including 124 shipwrecks, in the 29-square-mile bay while conducting an archaeological survey between 2020 and 2023. The shipwrecks are from a range of eras and civilizations, including the ancient Punic (Carthaginian) civilization, and the Roman, medieval and modern periods, according to a recent research paper. The discovery of the shipwrecks confirms the importance of the bay as a maritime hub of regional and global significance, the researchers said. It has been surrounded by urban settlements since the ancient period, been an entry point to the Iberian Peninsula in the medieval period, and a point of naval confrontation over control of the strait in modern times. While most of the wrecks relate to mod