Divers off the coast of Egypt’s Mediterranean coast have recently discovered the remarkable remains of an Ancient Greek military vessel. The ship was lost in the second century B.C. and has been hidden in the ruins of a sunken city called Thônis-Heracleion for thousands of years.
The submerged port city once regulated trade in the western part of the Nile Delta and controlled entry into Egypt. Researchers believe that when the city’s colossal Temple of Amun collapsed, debris tore through the ship moored below, causing it to sink and trapping it underwater. But that wasn’t the only find at the site this month by underwater archaeologists. Divers also discovered a Greek funerary complex dating from the fourth century B.C. near another canal.
These two discoveries, according to the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), shed new light on the intricacies of Ancient Egypt’s contemporary trade culture.
Thônis-Heracleion was built on a group of islands in Abu Qir Bay, just north of Alexandria, by Egyptians. During the late Pharaonic dynasties, the Greeks settled in Thônis-Heracleion, establishing their own religious centers near the Egyptian Temple of Amun, Ancient Egypt’s supreme god.
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