admin Nearly 1,200 years ago, the Mediterranean Sea submerged the city of Heracleion, off the coast of Egypt. Before it sank more than a thousand years ago, it was one of the most important trading centers in the Mediterranean. Much like how the modern world views the city of Atlantis, Heracleion has long been considered a myth. But after conducting extensive underwater research in what is now Aboukir Bay, underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio finally located the submerged city in 2000 before that
Heracleion had reduced by authors such as Strabo and Diodorus to just a few lines and phrases in ancient texts. recently discovered.According to Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC), when the mythical hero Heracles (also known as Heracles) took his first steps to Egypt, a massive temple was built there. It is also claimed that Paris and Helen of Troy visited the place before the legendary Trojan War. The Greek explorer Strabo observed the city of Heracleion east of Canopus, at the mouth of the Nile, four centuries after Herodotus’s voyage to Egypt.
Great Lost Cities Researcher Discovers Franck Goddio’s Legend
“A pioneer of modern maritime archeology,” Franck Goddio is a recognized underwater archaeologist. To explore and study underwater archaeological sites, Goddio founded the European Institute of Underwater Archeology (IEASM) in 1. At underwater archaeological sites, IEASM is renowned for deploying a methodical approach using geophysical exploration methods. The crew can detect anomalies on the seabed by moving through the area in regular parallel lines. These anomalies can then be studied by divers or robots.
To locate Canopus, Thonis and Heracleion, all of which are believed to have sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, the IEASM began mapping the area around the port of Alexandria in 1992. In 1996, they expanded their search to the entire Gulf of Alexandria. ‘Aboukir at the request of the Egyptian government. Through this investigation, they were able to understand the terrain and conditions that led to the area’s gradual submersion. The team identified top areas of concern using data from historical documents. The Aboukir Bay survey covered a study area of 11 x 15 km (6.8 x 9.3 miles).
Mapping of Aboukir Bay began in 1996 and lasted a long time. They made discoveries of Canopus in 1999 and Heracleion in 2000. The remains of the ancient city are covered in sediment, which explains why the location of the buried city of Heracleion remains hidden hidden for a long time in the bay of ‘Aboukir.Sand and silt deposited at the mouth of the Nile River form the upper layer of the ocean floor. Using accurate magnetic mapping, the IEASM team was able to recover the remains, providing the evidence needed to finally determine Heracleion’s location.
Discovery of heracleion: a city into hell?
Heracleion, now submerged in the Mediterranean Sea, was once located 32 km northeast of Alexandria in ancient Egypt, at the mouth of the Nile River. This vast metropolis was both a major trading port with Greece and a place of worship, where sailors offered gifts to the gods. Politically, the city was important because pharaohs had to go to the temple of Amun to become supreme ruler.
Sunken ancient city of Heracleion discovered 10 meters (32.8 feet) below the surface and 6.5 km (4 mi) from the present shoreline in the western part of Aboukir Bay. Using advanced technology and collaborating with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, IEASM was able to locate, map and excavate the site.
Divers discovered the city to be remarkably well preserved, with many properties remaining intact after scraping away layers of sand and mud. These include the great temple of Amun-Gerb, giant sculptures of pharaohs, several smaller statues of gods and goddesses, a sphinx, 64 ancient shipwrecks, 700 anchors, stone blocks inscribed with ancient Greek and Egyptian inscriptions, Dozens of coffins, gold and copper coins and stone barbells.
Discovery of heracleion: a city into hell?
Underwater archaeologists have discovered a colossal statue of Hapi, the god responsible for flooding the Nile, 5.4 meters high meters (17.7 feet) amid the ruins of the ancient metropolis. This is one of three giant red granite statues dating from the 4th century BC discovered. A prehistoric stele with intricate, legible writing, originally commissioned by Nectanebo I between 378 and 362 BC, was also discovered by researchers in 2001.
Because Thonis was the name originally given to the city by the Egyptians while Heracleion was given by the ancient Greeks, archaeologists can infer from the inscriptions on this ancient stele that Thonis and Heracleion is one and the same ancient city. The name of the ancient city was later changed to Thonis-Heracleion.
Many of the statues and buildings that once stood tall and majestic in the great city can be seen in breathtaking photographs taken during the discovery and restoration operations. In one image, a Greco-Egyptian statue of a Ptolemaic queen lies eerily at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded only by silt and darkness, while in another the face of a The famous pharaoh emerged from the sand.
Franck Goddio said the aim of the IEASM underwater excavation was to “learn as much as possible by touching as little as possible and leave it to future technology” in a 2015 BBC interview.Around 2% of the site had been excavated at that time. The same clay deposit from the Nile that has long concealed the ancient city also shields the relics on the ocean floor from salt water.
IEASM takes great care to restore and preserve artifacts that are taken from their secret underwater refuge on board their ships and in laboratories. This process has taken days in some cases, while it took two and a half years to complete the massive Hapi monument for example.
Knowing the causes of the collapse of cities at sea
The metropolis built on the Nile Delta was considered breathtakingly beautiful and was crisscrossed by a powerful canal network. Heraklion, also called the “Venice of the Nile,” once held the title of the largest port in the Mediterranean. According to excavations in the region, the city gradually lost importance and disappeared under water around the second half of the 8th century AD. The question arises as to why such an important city was destroyed.
The cause is a series of geological phenomena and catastrophes.Geological studies carried out by the IEASM in collaboration with other institutions have shown that the low subsistence rate, sea level rise and regional phenomena related to the composition of the region’s soil have influenced the southeast of the Mediterranean basin, creating the necessary conditions for the fall of cities like Herakleion in the sea.
Egypt’s Lost Worlds Exhibits
The Egyptian government, which owns the artifacts, granted IEASM permission in 2005 to organize a traveling display of the finds. Egypt’s Sunken Treasures, the exhibition that resulted, traveled to significant cities in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Japan. A record 7,500 people each day, on average, visited the show at the Grand Palais in France.
The British Museum and Franck Goddio collaborated to organize the first underwater archaeological exhibition in 2015, which featured over 200 objects found between 1996 and 2012 by the IEASM off the coast of Egypt. At that point, according to Goddio, they had only discovered 5% of the 3.5 sq. km.-sized ancient metropolis of Heracleion (1.35 miles).
Goddio reportedly said that while “this would be a tremendous project on land, it’s a task that will take hundreds of years under the sea and beneath the silt,” according to The Art Newspaper. Heracleion is around three times the size of Pompeii, a catastrophic site that archaeologists have been excavating for more than a century, so you can get an idea of the scope of this undertaking.
The Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds exhibition at the British Museum was also shown in 2015 at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the Saint Louis Art Museum in the United States. Before the items were sent back to Egypt in January 2021, they made their final stop at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
The discovery of Heracleion prompts critical inquiries concerning the veracity of purported “mythical towns.” Who knows what other mythical sunken cities from the past will be discovered in the future if a city that was previously thought to be mythical can be found in the depths of the sea? Time will only tell.
