Groundbreaking Discoveries Made in Underwater Ancient Egyptian Cities of Heracleion and Canopus

Sitting 32km northeast of Alexandria, near the Canpoic Mouth of the Nile, the underwater city of Heracleion – also known as Thonis – has long been a point of fascination for historians and a pint of importance for both the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks.

The new archaeological season has seen a team of Egyptian and European researchers spend two months exploring the city’s remains – a pursuit that lead to discovering a new, destroyed part of the city’s main temple, a smaller Greek temple, pottery believed to be from the third and fourth centuries BC and bronze coins from the reign of King Ptolemy II between 283 to 246 BC.

More significantly, however, is that the city is larger than previously thought. The team also found several new ports, which expand the city’s map, in addition to the expansion to the map of another nearby sunken city, Canopus, after the discovery of the remains off several buildings, alongside coins and jewellery.

Full details of the findings will be revealed through a series of academic journals throughout the year.

Photos courtesy of Christoph Gerigk/Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation