Egypt: Evidence of submerged ancient city | Heraklion | NNDC | The world

Archaeologists have unearthed a military ship and a funeral home in Heraklion, an ancient Egyptian city that sank in the Mediterranean, the Egyptian Ministry of Archeology announced Monday.

The discovery was made during the underwater excavations at Heraklion (Tennessee in ancient Egyptian language), one of the country’s main ports on the Nile River, until Alexander the Great founded the city of Alexandria in 331 BC.

The city was discovered in 2001 after a series of earthquakes and tidal waves.

“A Franco-Egyptian mission (…) found traces of a military ship from the Ptolemaic period and traces of a Greek funeral home from the fourth century BC.”, The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement.

According to archaeologists’ first exceptions, this flat ship with long skirts, a mast and sails was 25 meters long and was used to navigate the Nile Delta.

According to them, the ship came next to the ancient Amon temple and the building collapsed due to an earthquake in the second century BC.

“Ships’ inventions from that time are exceptional”Frank Codio of the European Underwater Archaeological Institute, who led the work, considers.

Archaeologists have also unearthed a funeral procession from ancient Egypt that shows the presence of Greek merchants at the time.

According to the ministry, the Greeks later ruled the region and built funerals. Evidence of those temples was found “under excellent condition” underwater.

The ministry emphasizes that these latest discoveries “show the richness of the temples of this city, which now rests in the Mediterranean Sea.”

Source: AFP

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