Lost Ancient Harbor City Thonis Heracleion Revealed
Legends and Myths throughout told about this lost city have long left a mystery as to where it went and what fate had in store for Hercleion until recently. Ten years ago no one knew if Heracleion was fictitious or a real place, after many years of searching researchers have finally confirmed finding the lost city of Heracleion 150 feet below the surface of Egypt's Bay of Aboukir. This find has unearthed a treasure trove of ancient artifacts. In tales the city of Heracleion was known as a great harbor city throughout the ages. Items found so far in 64 ships, 16 statues and many smaller artifacts like jewelry, gold and silver.
This enormous statue represents the god Hapi who ruled and watched over the Nile and his statues can be found decorating the city temples across the lost city of Heracleion.
Hapi is known as a symbol of abundance and fertility, has never before been discovered at such a large size. This statue reaches over 5 meters tall. The discovery of Heracleion who was named by the Greeks and ancient Egyptians is just amazing because the entire city had disappeared into the sea over 1200 years ago!
The excavations have dramatically revealed this beautiful city and what it was like before it was lost into the sea. The finds include architectural elements, colossal statues, inscriptions, coins, jewelry, ceramics and ritual objects that reveal the many intricacies of the people who live here many years ago in time.
Recovered gold from underwater excavation at Heracleion
Relics recovered by excavations reveal this lost cities’ beauty and glory long before it was swallowed by the sea. Many great finds like colossal statues, inscriptions, cultural elements, jewelry, coins, ritual objects and ceramics have been found so far and each reveals what it might have been like to live in Heracleion. The finds show this city to be crucial to the ancient world economy. Huge lots of gold coins, bronze, as well as lead and stone weights used to measure value of goods coming into the harbor in ancient times have been found at the bottom of the sea. With many ancient sunken to the bottom of the bay, this is clearly the largest number of ancient vessels located in one location.
Egyptian God Isis found at Heracleion
Statues of Hapi the ancient Egyptian goddess and also Isis who was an Egyptian goddess have been found at the excavation site. Also found was an unidentified pharaoh and many other smaller statues of gods, pharaoh's, queens and assorted figurines. On site there was a sacrificial site dedicated to the God Amun-Gereb where animals were mummified then placed into sarcophagus's as gifts to
Amun-Gereb the supreme god of the Egyptians.
The discovery is credited to the underwater Frank Goddio who first found the site. The date of the city is estimated to roughly 8th century B.C. far older than the lost city of Alexandra. The city endured many disasters over the years before being swallowed by the sea around 700 A.D. Soil erosion and rising sea levels likely played a part to the cities demise.
This sunken treasure was also known as the City of Thonis; it's described as the main sea hub that controlled traffic in the Mediterranean Sea. Routes led to many famous cities delivering goods to Alexandria, Algeciras, Athens, Arish, Barcelona, Beirut, Cannes, Damietta, Gaza, Haifa, Ibiza, Nice, Marseille, Marbella, Port Said, Rome, Sarande, Sibenik, Tangier, Tunis, Tripoli, Tel Aviv Jaffa, Valencia and Valetta.
Out new rich understanding of the city allows us to see that it played a vital role in maritime economy due to close proximity to prospering Mediterranean countries such as Algeria, Albania, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Libya, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey during the late period Egyptian era. As a major international trading port for Egypt it also served as a levy point for trade taxes and export duties.
Tales through the ages describe stories of Helen visiting the cities with her lover Paris just before the beginning of the Trojan War.
A Monolithic chapel found called Noas dates back to the Ptolemaic period and was key to identifying this underwater excavation site and the lost city of Thonis-Heracleion.
This is known as the stele of Thonis-Heracleion was order by Nectanebo I (378-362 BC) and nearly identical to the stele of Naukratis at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, written upon this stele is the city Thonis-Heracleion.
This remarkable find is the life long dream of both treasure hunters and historians alike!
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