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VORDONISI: THE SUNKEN ISLAND
Beneath the waters of the Marmara Sea, near Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands, lie the remains of Vordonisi.
The island is believed to have disappeared after an earthquake around 1010 A.D. According to later accounts, Vordonisi was associated with Photios I, an important Byzantine religious and political figure who was reportedly exiled there. A monastery attributed to him is also said to have stood on the island before sinking beneath the sea.
JOHN BAYLY AND HIS MAP
Today, Vordonisi is absent from most modern maps. Yet in 1767, cartographer John Bayly depicted it as two small landmasses in the Marmara Sea. His map was reproduced by John Lodge several years later. No surviving explanation reveals why Bayly included the island, leaving open the possibility that he relied on older charts, local knowledge, or visible remnants above the water.
Underwater surveys conducted around Vordonisi in 2016 and 2017 uncovered Proconnesian marble artefacts associated with shipwrecks. The stone likely came from Marmara Island, once famous for its marble quarries, and may have been carried aboard vessels that struck the island’s submerged cliffs.
These discoveries reveal Vordonisi as more than a lost settlement. Its reefs and rocky edges formed part of a dangerous maritime landscape crossed by ships transporting people, stone, and goods through the Marmara Sea.
BETWEEN EVIDENCE AND LEGEND
Much of Vordonisi’s history remains uncertain.
Few written records describe the island before its disappearance, and no known first-hand accounts survive from those who lived or worked there. The details of Photios I’s exile and monastery are still incomplete, while Bayly’s unusual map raises questions that have never been fully answered.
Stories have also imagined the secluded island as a refuge for pirates or a hiding place for treasure. Although no archaeological evidence currently supports these claims, they reflect the mystery that often gathers around small islands, shipwrecks, and forgotten coastlines.
Vordonisi remains suspended between archaeology, memory, and legend: an island erased from the surface, but not entirely from history.