When it comes to the civilization on the banks of the Nile, people immediately think of the Pharaohs, the pyramids, the Sphinx, or the ancient city of Alexandria… But in addition to those interesting things, Egypt is also famous for its coastal cities, which mysteriously sank to the bottom of the ocean in the 800s AD, just like the ancient city of Atlantis. Those are the cities of Heracleion and Canopus.
Ancient documents record the existence of these two cities. Accordingly, they were once extremely bustling gateways to Egypt before the city of Alexandria was built and developed.
These cities were discovered by divers in 1996 and are still quite intact despite being under the silt of the seabed for thousands of years. After two decades of hard work, divers and archaeologists have successfully excavated these ancient cities and brought hundreds of valuable artifacts to the surface.
The artifacts include colossal statues, gold jewelry of the Pharaohs and hieroglyphic stelae once thought lost forever.
A 1.9m-high stone stele with hieroglyphic royal proclamations by Pharaoh Nectanebo I.
A 5.4m-high statue of Hapy, the Egyptian goddess of the Nile floods.
A necklace of Pharaoh Sheshonk II.
A statue of Arsinoe II, the Ptolemaic Queen.
These metal boat models were gifts from the Egyptians to the gods.
A statue of the goddess Apis, the personification of the bull.
An Egyptian sailor, sculpted in the form of a sphinx.
A statue of the god Osiris
Hundreds of these artifacts will be on display in the exhibition “Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost World” at the British Museum, which runs from May to November 2016.
