Découverte d'une cité engloutie au large de l'Égypte

Warning: This is a google translation. For the original French, follow the link. Glenn

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Discovery of a sunken city off Egypt

• Home CULTURE Culture
• • By Alicia.Paulet
  • Update on 07/05/2015 at 16:24
  • Published on 07/05/2015 at 11:12

The city is swallowed up 45 meters below the sea surface, about 6,5km from the Nile Delta, about the year 700. Photo credit: © Frank Goddio

The monumental statues come from the city of Thonis-Heracleion Photo credits:. © Frank Goddio

The head of a deity is covered with foam Photo credits:. © Frank Goddio

Frank Goddio discovered a statue of a goddess off Egypt Photo credits:. © Frank Goddio

Three monumental statues were removed from the salt waters Photo credits:. © Frank Goddio

Greek pottery were found in the Mediterranean Photo credits:. © Frank Goddio

IN PICTURES - A team of archaeologists has found a missing ancient city in the Mediterranean there are about 1,200 years. This would be the legendary port Thonis-Heracleion.

This is an exceptional discovery. Frank Goddio dives for over twenty years in the Mediterranean in search of lost treasures including underwater cities. For many years, he was looking for the city of Thonis-Heracleion. In 2000, aided by a mapping that has meticulously carried out, it finally falls on along the coasts of Egypt.

Until its discovery, it was unclear whether this city, mentioned by Herodotus , had really existed or was a myth. In the spirit of this ancient author Thônis was the emporium of Egypt, where Greek and Egyptian traders exchanged their goods. Diodorus of Sicily for his part evokes a "river opens into the sea near a place named Thônis, the old warehouses of Egypt." All these evocations invite to think that an Egyptian border post named Thônis, who was also a commercial center, already existed at the time the text was written Homer in the eighth century BC.

In later centuries, the ancient Greeks evoke the presence in the region of a large temple dedicated to Hercules: Heracleion they name the city that surrounds it, but they also speak of an ancient city of Canopus and a nearby town Menouthis named.

With Frank Goddio, here is the proof that this port city is alive and well. According to archaeologists, the city is swallowed up 45 meters below the sea surface, about 6,5km from the Nile Delta, about the year 700. Archaeologists attribute this to rising sea levels and erosion ground. Dozens of boats, monumental statues and steles were found several meters.

Of deity statues found

Damian Robinson, director of archeology at Oxford University has worked with the team of Frank Goddio. "This is an incredible discovery. It's amazing to see how the site has been well preserved. Hundreds of small statues of gods were found. We are now trying to find out where the temples of these gods were located in the city, "he explains. "Ships are also interesting, because the port is huge, surely one of the greatest of this era. We found more than 700 ancient anchors so far, "said the archaeologist.

An exhibition of several sunken Frank Goddio discoveries will be held in Paris at the Institut du Monde Arabe September 8, 2015 January 31, 2016.