Sunken city treasures emerge after 2,000 years: “The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage”
Archaeologists find sunken treasure off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt.
Earlier this week, a remarkable archaeological operation unfolded off the coast of Alexandria. Equipped with cranes and a curious crowd, divers retrieved a number of ancient relics from the depths of Abu Qir Bay, remains of what archaeologists believe might be part of the long-lost city of Canopus, dating back more than two millennia.
Led by the French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio, the incredible discoveries come as the result of over three decades of work by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) in cooperation with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Among the retrieved treasures, archaeologists found: a quartz sphinx bearing the cartouche of Ramesses II; fragments of a Ptolemaic-era granite statue; a marble torso of a Roman nobleman; and a richly decorated pedestal.
“The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage”
“There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited. It’s only specific material according to strict criteria,” said Sherif Fathi, Egypt’s tourism and antiquities minister, speaking to the media on Thursday. “The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage.”
“The artefacts that you see date back to successive periods, starting from the Ptolemaic era,” said Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
“The reason these ancient places are underwater now is because the coastline has changed since antiquity,” Stephen Harvey, an Egyptologist, told The Art Newspaper. “Thonis and Heracleion are cities we only know about from underwater work by Goddio. But the coastline change is not part of recent processes. Temples, palaces and houses are now in the various bays—but were submerged millennia ago.”
The Guardian noted that “the underwater ruins include limestone buildings that may have served as places of worship, residential spaces and commercial or industrial structures," while “reservoirs and rock-carved ponds for domestic water storage and fish cultivation were also uncovered.”
The outlet added that time is working against the archaeologists, who are battling climate change: “a third of Alexandria will be underwater or uninhabitable by 2050,” it wrote.
Colossal head of Serapis; Canopus, 200 BC. On loan from Maritime Museum, Alexandria - Egypt.
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) November 28, 2023
Head depicting Greco-Egyptian god Serapis is from a colossal statue that stood over 4m tall. Statue is thought to be from Temple of Serapis, a huge sanctuary measuring 101 by 78 metres,… pic.twitter.com/B6QVwqAM6n
Restoration work is underway ahead of the opening of the new Secrets of the Sunken City exhibition at the Alexandria National Museum, which will showcase the rare finds.
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