Ship Wrecks:

Alexandria - The Submerged Royal Quarters

Since Napoleon Bonaparte's French conquest of Egypt nearly thirty plans of Ptolemaic or Roman Alexandria were made by modern scholars, historians or archaeologists. All these plans were inaccurate, particulary regarding the harbours, as archaeologists were unaware of the shore level since the great earthquake which destroyed the famous lighthouse, the Pharos.Franck Goddio, with the help of a skilled team of divers and sophisticated equipment, has drawn for the first time with the utmost accuracy the submerged eastern part of the Eastern Harbour of Alexandria. This plan conforms, to the minutest detail, with the description of an eyewitness, Strabo the Geographer, who visited Alexandria around 25 BC: the promontories which issue from the ancient submerged coasts, the reefs, the ancient ports including the hidden Royal Harbour, the submerged island of Antirhodos with the location of the palace in which Cleopatra VII lived, the jetty which Antony built, the location of his Timonium and of the temple of Poseidon and part of the Basieila and Emporium.Most important of all is the discovery of a light wood landing place on the island of Antirhodos dating from the 5th century BC, thus before the founding of the city by Alexander the Great. The squared plan of the third harbour looks like a coffer, a kibotos, as well as the hieroglyphic sigh for 'house' (per).Hundreds of submerged artifacts, including fine sculptures and important inscriptions dating from Pharaonic times up to the Roman period, were also located and photographed. In short the IEASM's work in this area is of the utmost scientific importance for the history and archaeology of Egypt. Fawzi El FakharaniProfessor Emeritus of ArchaeologyAlexandria UniversityBook Size: 250 x 350 x 30mmBook stored inside hard box cover274 Pages of text including translations, photographs, maps and charts.

From: Periplus

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