The sea gives and the sea takes. Now, it has given back pieces of a lost 2,000-year-old city.
Off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, cranes lifted statues, coins, and stone anchors from the Mediterranean. Divers cheered from the water’s edge as fragments of temples, harbor docks, and a sphinx emerged into the sunlight for the first time in two millennia.
Egyptian officials say the site, located in Abu Qir Bay, may be an extension of the ancient city of Canopus, just 15 miles (25 km) away from central Alexandria. Once a thriving hub under the Ptolemaic dynasty and later the Roman Empire, the city was swallowed by the sea following earthquakes and rising waters. Along with the nearby port of Thonis-Heracleion, it vanished beneath the waves centuries ago.
Fragments of Empire
Last Thursday, reporters watched as cranes slowly hauled relics from the shallows. Among the notable discoveries: a headless granite statue from the Ptolemaic era, a marble likeness of a Roman nobleman’s lower half, and a partially preserved sphinx bearing the cartouche of Ramses II. There were also limestone foundations that may have been shrines or homes, as well as rock-carved reservoirs and ponds once used for water storage and fish cultivation.
Coins dating back to Roman rule were also displayed. Nearby, archaeologists documented a merchant shipwreck, stone anchors, and a 125-meter dock that served as a harbor until the Byzantine era. “The artifacts that you see date back to successive periods, starting from the Ptolemaic era,” explained Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Egypt’s tourism and antiquities minister, Sherif Fathi, cautioned that much will remain below. “There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited, it’s only specific material according to strict criteria,” he told reporters. “The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage.”
That’s because of international law. Egypt signed UNESCO’s 2001 Convention on Underwater Cultural Heritage, which restricts retrieval and prioritizes in-situ preservation. Many of the artifacts are now being restored and will be showcased in the Secrets of the Sunken City exhibition at Alexandria’s National Museum.
The Past Meets the Future
Abu Qir Bay has long been a theater of lost empires. The site was first identified in 1859 by Prince Omar Touson. Decades later, divers later identified Napoléon’s warships, sunk during the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Each century seems to add another layer to the bay’s underwater graveyard.
But the recent finds also cast a shadow over Alexandria itself. The same forces that drowned Canopus still threaten the city. The two ancient cities were connected by both land and water. Ancient canals and branches of the Nile linked them, while coastal roads allowed movement between Alexandria’s bustling port and Canopus, which was famous for its temples (particularly the temple of Serapis) and for being a lively resort town in Greco-Roman times.
Today, Alexandria is subsiding by more than three millimeters each year, while seas continue to rise. The United Nations projects that even under optimistic scenarios, a third of the city could be underwater or uninhabitable by 2050.
In this light, the recovered statues and busy harbor cranes serve as a warning. Civilizations rise and fall, often at the mercy of geology and climate. Today’s Alexandria faces the same elemental enemy that erased its predecessors.
