Finding Ancient Egypt's Gateway

We have an intact city, frozen in time." With those dramatic words, French underwater explorer Franck Goddio announced the discovery of Herakleion, the long-lost Egyptian port city often mentioned in classical writings and described by Herodotus. He visited it in 450 B.C. and toured a temple dedicated to the mythic strongman Hercules.

Scouring the murky waters off Alexandria using the latest scientific instruments, Goddio's 35-man team had already landed two prizes. Working with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, it located another lost city, Menouthis, and the wreckage of Napoleon's flagship, L'Orient, destroyed by Britain's Admiral Nelson two centuries ago in the Battle of the Nile.

Then, about four miles offshore, Goddio's magnetometers pinpointed large structures covered by sediment 30 ft. below the surface. Nearby, they also discovered what was once the mouth of the now submerged Canopic branch of the Nile, where ancient writings had indeed placed Herakleion, a prosperous, commercial gateway to Egypt.

The fabled city could yield even more evidence of early Egyptian culture than divers have retrieved from Menouthis. There they have hauled from the sea a basalt head of a pharaoh, a bust of the curly-haired and bearded god Serapis and a life-size, headless statue of the goddess Isis, as well as gold coins and jewelry.

Team historians were particularly intrigued by black granite pieces from a Menouthis naos, or shrine, on which hieroglyphics revealed the roots of classical astrology. They described 36 "decades," or 10-day periods, during which the varying positions of stars and planets supposedly influenced human affairs.

As for Herakleion, its economic importance waned after Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 332 B.C. But Herakleion remained an influential cultural center, the goal of many religious pilgrims, until the 8th century A.D., when it was suddenly destroyed, probably by a powerful earthquake that toppled its buildings and submerged the entire city.

Herakleion's re-emergence from the sea should provide a treasure trove not only for archaeologists but also for historians. "Now when you read the ancient text," says Goddio, "everything makes sense."