Ionian Sea

Southwest of the Peloponnese, the Ionian Sea deepens into the Hellenic Trench. Here the Calypso Deep descends more than five kilometers below the surface, the greatest known depth in the Mediterranean. To the northeast lies the sheltered Bay of Navarino, where an Ottoman and Egyptian fleet gathered during the Greek War of Independence. In 1827 British, French and Russian ships entered the bay and destroyed the fleet, a decisive event in the struggle for Greek independence.