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below Lost with the city of Thonis-Heracleion, this v otive boat and statuette of Osiris were used in the religious ceremonies of the city at the end of La te Egyptian period or early Ptolemaic period, c.4th–2nd c entury BC. Thonis-Heracleion Finding a legendary port under the sea Once gatekeeper to Egypt’s interior, Thonis-Heracleion lay forgotten beneath the sea several miles off the Egyptian coast. The legendary city, visited by Helen of Troy as she eloped with Paris, enjoyed wealth and prestige before vanishing from the face of the earth. less stated , un ilti Foundation io/H Godd Franck © Gerigk : Christoph images all Perhaps it was the tsunami in the 4th century AD or the great earthquake in the 8th century AD that hit the shores of North Africa, or perhaps the gradual erosion of the coastline. More probably, it was a combination of all three. But about 1,200 years ago, one of the greatest ports on the Mediterranean coast slipped beneath the waves. The entire city, with its monumental architecture, its colossal stone statues, and all the detritus of a bustling commercial hub, was lost to the sea, along with its name. Until, that is, Franck Goddio and his team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), with funding from the Hilti Foundation, surveyed the area at the mouth of the Nile. The archaeologists noticed traces of a submerged landscape about 6.5km (4 miles) off the Egyptian shore. What they had found was Thonis-Heracleion, a longforgotten emporium that once controlled the maritime trade entering and leaving Egypt. And in doing so, they also solved an ancient mystery: historical sources mention two cities on this westernmost mouth of the Nile near the city of Canopus, where the great river enters the Mediterranean Sea: Thonis and Heracleion. In fact, they are one and the same. Finding the city In 2000, after several years of geophysical survey researching the ancient great port of Alexandria – Portus Magnus, home of the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World – the IEASM team picked up signals on their equipment a little further out in the Bay of Aboukir. These indicated strong magnetic disturbances in the centre of the eastern part of the submerged Canopic landscape: long lines of strong magnetic gradient 16 CurrentWorldArchaeology Issue 60
page 17
EGYPT Mediterranean Sea ABOUKIR BAY Rosetta NAMIBIA THONIS-HERACLEION Alexandria Alexandria Cairo EGYPT Aswan running in parallel along an east-northeast to west-south-west direction in a part of the bay that was relatively shallow. The team took core samples of the sediment. The results suggested that the region had experienced some kind of seismic activity, either earthquakes or subsidence. Intriguingly, they also showed that this area was formerly part of a river bed. It was once made up of land and waterways in the lower basin of the Nile Delta on a main branch of the river with its secondary tributaries, where they emptied into the sea. Franck Goddio and his divers decided to take a closer look. What they found, 5m to 8m (16-26ft) below their survey ship, poking up through the sediment on the sea floor, were the archaeological remains of huge architectural structures. These buildings ran along the same lines as those picked up by the magnetic survey, confirming earlier suspicions that the area had been affected by one or more geological catastrophes. Given the immense weight of these huge structures and the soft sediment on which they stood, it is more than likely that they contributed to the collapse of the land, which eventually sank beneath the waters. However, underwater excavation has also revealed that the city was no stranger to natural disasters: wooden posts and planking reinforcements had been used in various areas at different periods of its history to shore up the land and prevent slippage. ‘We knew from the very beginning that we would have to address the complexity of a landscape in which land and water is intermixed,’ explains Goddio. It certainly appears that the inhabitants took advantage of the natural topography, using interconnecting water channels for transportation and communication across the city. Now, 12 years on, the team is finding important new information not only about the natural features of the site, but also about the layout and organisation of the city itself, with its port and temples. As the archaeologists began to investigate further, they discovered a BELOW Bathymetric map showing the area of strong magnetic disturbance and location of HeracleionThonis in the submerged Canopic Region. www.world-archaeology.com i o n i Fo u n d at i l t i o / H G o d d Fra n ck © i o G o d d : Fra n ck M A P CURRENTWORLDARCHAEOLOGY 17

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below Lost with the city of Thonis-Heracleion, this v otive boat and statuette of Osiris were used in the religious ceremonies of the city at the end of La te Egyptian period or early Ptolemaic period, c.4th–2nd c entury BC.

Thonis-Heracleion Finding a legendary port under the sea Once gatekeeper to Egypt’s interior, Thonis-Heracleion lay forgotten beneath the sea several miles off the Egyptian coast. The legendary city, visited by Helen of Troy as she eloped with Paris, enjoyed wealth and prestige before vanishing from the face of the earth.

less stated

, un ilti Foundation io/H

Godd

Franck

©

Gerigk

: Christoph images all

Perhaps it was the tsunami in the 4th century AD or the great earthquake in the 8th century AD that hit the shores of North Africa, or perhaps the gradual erosion of the coastline. More probably, it was a combination of all three. But about 1,200 years ago, one of the greatest ports on the Mediterranean coast slipped beneath the waves. The entire city, with its monumental architecture, its colossal stone statues, and all the detritus of a bustling commercial hub, was lost to the sea, along with its name.

Until, that is, Franck Goddio and his team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), with funding from the Hilti Foundation, surveyed the area at the mouth of the Nile.

The archaeologists noticed traces of a submerged landscape about 6.5km (4 miles) off the Egyptian shore. What they had found was Thonis-Heracleion, a longforgotten emporium that once controlled the maritime trade entering and leaving Egypt. And in doing so, they also solved an ancient mystery: historical sources mention two cities on this westernmost mouth of the Nile near the city of Canopus, where the great river enters the

Mediterranean Sea: Thonis and Heracleion. In fact, they are one and the same.

Finding the city In 2000, after several years of geophysical survey researching the ancient great port of Alexandria – Portus Magnus, home of the Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the World – the IEASM team picked up signals on their equipment a little further out in the Bay of Aboukir. These indicated strong magnetic disturbances in the centre of the eastern part of the submerged Canopic landscape: long lines of strong magnetic gradient

16

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Issue 60

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