Diving archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient warship and a Greek burial site in the sunken Egyptian city of Thonis Heraklion.
The city, which was located at the mouth of the Nile, was the largest port on the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt in antiquity, until Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BC.
Built in the time of the pharaohs, in the 12th century BC, the city, then called Thonis, was destroyed by earthquakes more than 1,200 years ago. The sunken city was discovered in 2001 in Abu Kir Bay near Alexandria.
Divers from an Egyptian-French group of archaeologists led by the European Institute of Underground Archeology found the ancient warship, which sank when the famous temple of Amun in the city, near which the ship was, collapsed in the second century BC.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Heritage said preliminary investigations show that the flat-bottomed, 26-meter-long boat equipped with paddles and a large sail reflects the traditional shipbuilding of the time, but also bears the characteristics of ancient Egypt.
In another part of the sunken city, a Greek cemetery dating back to the early years of the 4th century BC was found.
This discovery miraculously reflects the presence of the Greek merchants who lived in the city.” The bag said, adding that the Greeks were already able to settle in the area during the late Pharaonic dynasties.
“Their holy places were built near the great temple of Ammon. They were also destroyed, and their remains were found with the remains of the Egyptian temple,” the statement wrote in the statement.
(MTI/Reuters)
