Old, Rusty And Dangerous

Mine, destroyed. Photos from Hürriyet

Mines, whether buried under dirt or lurking in the deeps of the seas are in my humble view are the most loathsome weapons as they can be still deadly after decades.


The scenes of old battlefields are ripe with them all over the world. There are an estimated 80,000 unexploded mines remain in the Baltic, mostly laid by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.

Every year a couple of sea mines are found and destroyed in Turkey. Most of these mines are dating back to the 1st World War. On 8th September a mine was discovered by a swimmer off a popular beach in Didim.

An underwater EOD team arrived from Istanbul inspected the mine. It had a diameter of 70 cm and estimated around 200 kg. Later it was taken off the shore, where it was destroyed by demolition charges.

A similar mine was found on the Black Sea in April 2010.