AN INCREDIBLE picture has surfaced to show a massive container ship floating in mid-air off the coast of Greece in what appears to be a boggling optical illusion.
Onlookers were left gobsmacked after the bizarre image showed freight vessel Achilleas soaring high above the horizon as it travelled between the Greek mainland and one of its islands.
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The mind-bending shot, captured by a Greek photographer Nontas Kalogiann, is an example of a complex mirage called Fata Morgana.
Despite its ghostly appearance, the effect has a simple explanation.
The phenomenon is created when the sun heats the atmosphere above either the land or the sea.
A layer of warmer air sits on top of a layer of cold air, causing the light from the ship to bend and make colours blend together.
For a Fata Morgana to appear, the atmospheric conditions have to be just right.
It starts with a cold air mass close to the ground or surface of the water that is topped by a warm layer of air higher in the atmosphere.
Although the phenomenon can occur on land, they are more common at sea because water helps to form the cool air layer required.
BBC meteorologist David Braine previously said the phenomenon is caused by conditions in the atmosphere which bend light.
“Superior mirages occur because of the weather condition known as a temperature inversion, where cold air lies close to the sea with warmer air above it,” he said.
“Since cold air is denser than warm air, it bends light towards the eyes of someone standing on the ground or on the coast, changing how a distant object appears.”
The mirage takes its name from Morgan le Fay – a sorceress from Arthurian legend – said to use her witchcraft to lure unwitting sailors into her traps.
The mirage is thought to be the reason for sightings of the Flying Dutchman, a 17th-century “ghost ship” doomed to sail the seas forever.
A similar picture of the illusion was captured off the British coast in 2022.
It showed a large cargo ship “floating in thin air” near the small village of Coverack in Cornwall.
The astonishing picture was snapped by photographer Martin Stroud as he was strolling through the village.
Posting in Coverack Life on Facebook, he said: “Almost looks like it’s flying! Beautiful day for a visit to Coverack.”
The bizarre illusion was also captured thrice off the coast of Kent.
Multiple “floating ships” have been snapped over the years near Devon and Aberdeenshire as well.
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