Unique discovery in Egypt: Divers find 2,000-year-old pleasure boat
Underwater archaeologists have made an “extremely exciting” find, uncovering the remains of an ancient Egyptian pleasure craft.
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an ancient Egyptian pleasure boat off the coast of Alexandria.
Dating back to the opening half of the first century AD, the vessel stretched an impressive 115 feet and was designed to house a central pavilion featuring a lavishly decorated cabin.
The discovery was made by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology under the direction of Franck Goddio, a visiting professor of maritime archaeology at the University of Oxford.
“Never been discovered before”
“It’s extremely exciting because it’s the first time ever that such a boat has been discovered in Egypt,” Goddio told an interview with The Guardian.
He added: “Those boats were mentioned by different ancient authors, like Strabo, and they were also represented in some iconography - for example in the Palestrina mosaic, where you see such a boat of a much smaller size with noblemen hunting hippopotamuses.
“But [an actual boat] has never been discovered before.”
The ship’s discovery will allowed researchers to delve deeper into “life, religion, luxury and pleasure on the waterways of early Roman Egypt”, Goddio told The Guardian.
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