City discovered off Alexandria coast
Egypt, History, 6/18/2001

Startling discoveries from the submerged city of Heracleion were reported in Alexandria June 7 by French archaeologist Franck Goddio, who had made the sensational discovery of the city a year ago.

The ancient port of Heracleion submerged in the Mediterranean Sea over two thousand years ago when a natural disaster, possibly an earthquake, sent it to the bottom of the Bay of Aboukir, near Alexandria.

"History is materializing in our hands," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced at the June 7 news conference, where Goddio said that the results of his research were the culmination of a "very special year" of excavation.

A year ago, Goddio discovered the remains of the city buried at the seabed 6.5 kilometers off the present coastline.

The city, then standing at the mouth of the Nile, was an important port before Alexandria was founded in 331 BC. Ships from around the known world used it as a port of entry to Egypt.

Over the past year, Goddio, the executive director of the Paris-based Institute of Underwater Archaeology, in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities, has conducted underwater surveys of the site.

His excavations have uncovered buildings, harbor installations and monuments. The French archaeologist has documented and mapped the discoveries made by a team of divers using advanced electronic technology.

Goddio suggested that it was a natural disaster that destroyed Heracleion, which could explain why none of the artifacts found dates back to later than the first century BC.

"During the electronic survey, we had evidence, a very strong nuclear resonance magnetic image, which shows there was some seismic fault right on the spot of Heracleion," he said.

The electronic survey also produced images that showed a deep blue stripe, which Goddio said was the old Nile riverbed that would have run next to the submerged city.

The majority of the archeological remains are concentrated in an area 1,000 meters long and 800 wide. The excavation team found that despite the fact that the city has been under water for centuries, many of the remains were well preserved, including a 150-meter long wall that was buried under the sea floor.

"The most significant find is the discovery of 10 antique ship wrecks," announced a written press statement by Goddio, making it possible to locate the site of Heracleion's port.

One find in particular is considered to be extremely valuable. Near the harbor installations the team found a black granite stele, a large slab of stone with an inscription.

"We have here a fully intact black granite stele, 195 cm high; its dimensions and decorative work are practically identical to the famous Stele of Naukratis, now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo," said Jean Yoyotte, a professor from the Collège de France in Paris.

The stele in the museum was found in 1899. Both steles feature an edict from the Pharaoh Nekanebos the First, who lived from 378 to 362 BC. The pharaoh's statement outlined the implementation of a 10 percent levy on Greek goods, which went towards the temple for the goddess Neith.

The discovery of two identical steles is considered to be "absolutely unique in the history of Egyptology." The stele is inscribed with the names Heracleion - Thonis, which refers to the city where it was erected.

Other finds include three large statues made of pink granite, which were removed from the sediment on the sea floor. One of the statues was of the Nile god of floods, Hâpi, and the other two were of a Pharaoh and a queen.

The three statues were found near a massive shrine, also made of pink granite. The shrine was covered with hieroglyphs from the Ptolemaic period.

The discovery of the stele and the statues provided the necessary evidence for Goddio to conclude that the underwater ruins were in fact the city of Heracleion.

"With the cartographic record of the seabed in the Bay of Aboukir and the new archaeological finds - in particular the Stele of Heracleion, the colossal statues and the naos of the temple - we are able to identify the city as Heracleion," said Goddio.

This conclusion then led Goddio to investigate the possibility that he had found the city's famous temple. "That in turn allows us to assume that we have found the famous Temple of Heracles-Khonsu, which, according to legend, was visited by Helena and Paris," explained Goddio.

According to the head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Gaballah Ali Gaballah, the entire site excavation will take close to 50 years to complete.

The underwater research was made possible through the financial support of the Discovery Channel. The channel plans to produce a TV program documenting the project.

Previous Stories:
  Cleopatra stuns the world   (6/16/2001)
  Treasures of sunken port revealed off Egypt's northern coast   (6/9/2001)
  Hatshepsut red gallery to open in Luxor   (6/9/2001)

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