Recovered Ancient Sculptures Discovered in Sunken City Near Alexandria

Pieces of limestone buildings, marble and granite royal statues, and the remains of a merchant ship are among the relics of an ancient sunken city retrieved by Egyptian authorities off the shores of Alexandria.

Dating back more than 2,000 years, the artifacts were reportedly hoisted from a submerged archaeological site in Abu Qir Bay yesterday, August 21. Egyptian officials told Agence France-Presse that the area may be part of the long-lost seaport Canopus, a prominent trade, religious, and luxury hub that flourished during Egypt’s Ptolemaic dynasty and the Roman empire. A combination of rising sea levels and continuous earthquakes drowned the metropolis and neighboring Thonis-Heracleion approximately 1,200 years ago.

Like its ancient predecessors, Alexandria is also vulnerable to rising sea levels. The United Nations estimates that at least a third of the historic city will be underwater or uninhabitable by 2050, displacing 1.5 million of its six million residents.

The resurfaced artifacts include remnants of buildings that may have been religious spaces, residences, and commercial businesses. Officials also recovered partially preserved pre-Roman statues of sovereigns and sphinxes, such as a beheaded Ptolemaic granite sculpture and an incomplete sphinx with a cartouche bearing the inscription of Ramesses II, whose reign as pharaoh was the second longest in Egyptian history. Other finds included rock-carved ponds used for fish cultivation and water storage.

The newly recovered artifacts are set to be featured in an ongoing exhibition at the Alexandria National Museum exploring the Greek, Roman, and Hellenistic history through underwater archaeology, NBC reported. Secrets of the Sunken City opened this week and currently displays 86 artifacts.

“There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited, it’s only specific material according to strict criteria,” Egypt’s tourism and antiquities minister Sherif Fath told AFP about the recently retrieved archaeological treasures. “The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage.”