2,000 year old sunken artifacts recovered by Archaeologists in Alexandria, Egypt
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Reported by NBC News:
Archaeologists and divers retrieved a trove of ancient treasures Thursday from a 2,000-year-old sunken city off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt.
Cranes carefully lifted these ancient artifacts from the shallow seawater of Abu Qir bay throughout the day, in front of gathered reporters.
The artifacts included a headless statue, a sphinx and a priest figure. The site may have been an extension of the ancient city of Canopus, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.
“There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited. It’s only specific material according to strict criteria,” said Sherif Fathi, Egypt’s tourism and antiquities minister, speaking to the media on Thursday.
In 2001, Egypt signed the U.N. cultural body UNESCO’s Convention on Underwater Cultural Heritage, limiting the retrieval of submerged artifacts.
“The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage,” Fathi said speaking to the media.
“The artifacts that you see date back to successive periods, starting from the Ptolemaic era,” said Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The Ptolemaic era lasted for nearly 300 years and was followed by Roman rule, which lasted for around 600 years.
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I was in Alexandria a couple of months ago, and wrote two stories, about the Lighthouse and Library. As I also am a keen diver, I'd love to dive there!