Divers have found the remains of an ancient city that was once the busiest port in the Mediterranean. Traces of Greek settlement have also been found.
On July 19, a team of Egyptian-French divers from the European Institute of Marine Archaeology discovered traces of an ancient warship belonging to the city of Thônis-Heracleion - one of Egypt's largest seaports in the Mediterranean in ancient times.
The city controlled the western entrance to the Nile River and flourished before being conquered and ruled by Alexander the Great in 331 BC.
Destroyed by earthquakes and submerged by tsunamis, traces of Thônis-Heracleion were first discovered in 2001 in Abu Qir Bay near Alexandria - Egypt's second largest city.
The image of Thônis-Heracleion was recreated by scientists through historical documents (photo: The Gaurdian).
The recently discovered boat is believed to have sunk while moored near the sacred temple of Amun when disaster struck in the 2nd century BC. Preliminary observations show the boat is 25 meters long, flat-bottomed, with oars and mast still intact. The boat has a strong ancient Egyptian architectural style.
In another part of the city, the expedition team also discovered an ancient Greek cemetery dating back 2,400 years. This shows that Greek traders lived here with the Egyptians under the Pharaohs. They built their own sanctuaries near the Amun temple. The sanctuaries were also destroyed and mixed with the Egyptian ruins, lying at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
Ruins of the ancient city of Thônis-Heracleion were found on the seabed.
Thônis-Heracleion was built around the eighth century BC. Ancient authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus from the fifth century BC wrote about Thônis-Heracleion, a great temple city to honor Amun, the Egyptian god of the sun and air.
This is the city where Paris and Helen took refuge before the Trojan War and the city where the hero Hercules once resided.
Some historians also believe that Cleopatra III was buried here with Pharaoh rites in a temple in this city.
