Incredible underwater city thought to have been lost for centuries

by Ian Hughes

Thonis-Heracleion was believed to be a legend by many, after it disappeared beneath the Mediterranean around 1,200 years ago - until it was found in 2000

It's not quite Atlantis, but the underwater city of Thonis-Heracleion comes very close.
For centuries the port was thought to be a legend, after disappearing beneath the Mediterranean around 1,200 years ago.
But it was discovered during a survey of the north coast of Egypt at the beginning of the 21st century.
Ever since, researchers have slowly been discovering more and more about the city, through which all trade from Greece and the Mediterranean entered Egypt.
Archaeologists have found the wreckages of more than 64 ships, gold coins and giant 16-foot statues.
Slabs of stone inscribed in both ancient Greek and Ancient Egyptian have also been brought to the surface.
Scientists have little idea what caused the city to slip into the water nearly 1,000 years after it was built in the eighth century BC.
Before disappearing, it would have sat at the mouth of the River Nile delta.
It is believed Paris and Helen of Troy were stranded in the city as they fled from the jealous Menelaus, prior to the start of the Trojan war.
A colossal 5.4 metre red granite statue of Hapi - the god of the flooding of the Nile - is one of the biggest ever found, and points to the importance of the area.
Over time, Thonis-Heracleion, and other cities that met a similar fate, faded from memory - noted only in a few historical texts.
One theory on its disappearance, is that sea level rise combined with a collapse of the sediment the city was built on caused the area to drop by around 12 feet.

Bay of Aboukir, the site of the lost city of Heracleion

Another blames the city's fate on a number of natural disasters.Underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his team uncovered the city during a three-year expedition.
He said: “The discoveries enhance the importance of the specific location of the city standing at the 'Mouth of the Sea of the Greek’.
“We are just at the beginning of our research.
"We will probably have to continue working for the next 200 years for Thonis-Heracleion to be fully revealed and understood.”
One of the finest finds from the bay of Aboukir is a statue of a Ptolemaic queen in dark stone. It is most likely, a representation of Cleopatra II or III, dressed as the goddess Isis.
“The site has amazing preservation," Dr Damian Robinson, from Oxford University told the Telegraph.
"We are now starting to look at some of the more interesting areas within it to try to understand life there.
“We are getting a rich picture of things like the trade that was going on there and the nature of the maritime economy in the Egyptian late period."