A 43-year-old shipwreck is one of the island’s most visited and photographed attractions.
If you search for the hashtag Zante or Zakynthos on Instagram, almost half of the images of this Greek island are of a sandy bay dominated by the wreckage of an old ship.
Navagio Beach and its 43-year-old shipwreck are one of the island’s most visited and photographed attractions, with tour companies offering dedicated excursions.
Recent posts on Instagram, however, show just how much the vessel has deteriorated over the course of the last decade.
Now, the state of the boat has come to the attention of authorities over fears it might be completely washed away – along with it a large chunk of the island’s income from tourism.
Navagio Beach, often nicknamed Shipwreck Beach or Smugglers’ Cove, is famed for the wreck of MV Panagiotis which ran aground in 1980.
Its legendary appearance is enhanced by the rumours that the ship was carrying contraband and was abandoned by the crew during a bad storm to escape the pursuing navy.
Surrounded by pristine pale sand and dramatic limestone bluffs, the bay is one of the island’s most visited and photographed spots.
In 2018, the beach was briefly closed and swimming and boat anchoring were forbidden after a portion of the cliff above collapsed.
In September 2022 another landslide occurred, sparked by a 5.4-magnitude earthquake between Kefalonia and Zakynthos. Access to the beach was prohibited once again and has remained so other than for boats approaching from the water.