A ship next to the temple has just been discovered in the ruins of an ancient Egyptian city that sank to the bottom of the sea more than a thousand years ago.
Divers have discovered rare remains of a ship inside a sunken ancient city in Egyptian waters.
Thônis-Heracleion was once Egypt’s largest port on the Mediterranean Sea and was a complex frequented by Greek merchants.
Ship divers next to the mysterious temple under the sunken city in Egypt.
The city dominated the region for centuries before Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331 BC.
The ancient city is one of the most important ports in Egypt. Due to the impact of several earthquakes and tsunamis, Thônis-Heracleion was destroyed and submerged under water along with large areas of the Nile Delta. It was not until 2001 that researchers discovered ancient Thônis-Heracleion located in the Abu Qir Bay area near Alexandria, currently Egypt’s second largest city.
Recently, a research team led by the European Institute of Underwater Archeology discovered a sunken ship near the famous Amun temple that collapsed in the second century BC.
Initial preliminary research shows that the flat-bottomed ship is about 25 meters long, has oars, large sails, is built in a classic traditional style and has some typical features of ancient Egyptian construction.
In addition, the team also discovered the remains of a large burial site dating back to the first years of the 4th century BC.
The new discovery is excellent evidence of the presence of Greek merchants living in the ancient city, and also shows that Greeks were settled there during the reign of the last Pharaoh. They built their own sanctuaries near giant temples.
Previously, archaeologists had discovered a number of ancient artifacts in the sunken city of Thônis-Heracleion. Most of Thônis-Heracleion’s artifacts are in such good condition because for more than two thousand years, silt on the seabed protected them from deterioration.
The quantity and quality of the excavated artifacts show that the city of Thônis-Heracleion was at its peak and prosperity from the 6th to 4th centuries BC.
