In ancient times, the city of Thonis-Heracleion, known in modern tiles as the lost kingdom of Cleopatra served as a gateway to Egypt. Today, this mysterious legendary city is submerged in Egypt’s Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria
New amazing underwater discoveries allow archaeologists to piece together clues and to create an image of what life was like in the ancient city.
Known as Heracleion to the ancient Greeks and Thonis to the ancient Egyptians the city was rediscovered in 2000 by French underwater archaeologist Dr. Franck Goddio and a team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM) after a four-year geophysical survey.
Its name was almost razed from the memory of mankind, only preserved in ancient classic texts and rare inscriptions found on land by archaeologists.
The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) tells us of a great temple that was built where the famous hero Herakles first set foot in Egypt.
He also reports of Helen’s visit to Heracleion with her lover Paris before the Trojan War. More than four centuries after Herodotus’ visit to Egypt, the geographer Strabo observed that the city of Heracleion, which possessed the temple of Herakles, is located straight to the east of Canopus at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the River Nile,” Dr. Frank Goddio writes on his website.As we have previously seen in our article Lost Kingdom Of Cleopatra – An Amazing Egyptian Underwater City scientists believe that the entire city was completely submerged, along with all the artifacts, statues, columns, and other beauties of the palace of Cleopatra.
Several of the submerged artifacts remained largely intact. Amongst the discoveries were the palace’s foundations, shipwrecks, red granite columns, and statues of the goddess Isis and a sphinx
Among the massive limestone blocks toppled in the fourth century was a huge quartzite block engraving a pharaoh. An inscription indicates it depicts Seti I, father of Ramses II.
A lion statue standing underwater.
Divers also discovered a colossal stone head believed to be of Caesarion, son of Cleopatra and previous lover Julius Caesar, and two sphinxes, one of them probably representing Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII.