ALEXANDRIA: Egypt on Thursday unveiled parts of a sunken city submerged beneath waters off the coast of Alexandria, revealing buildings, artefacts and an ancient dock, all dating back over 2,000 years.
Egyptian authorities said the site, located in the waters of Abu Qir Bay, may be an extension of the ancient city of Canopus, a prominent center during the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years, and the Roman Empire, which governed for around 600 years.
Over time, a series of earthquakes and rising sea levels submerged the city and the nearby port of Heracleion, leaving behind a treasure trove of historical remains.
On Thursday, cranes slowly hoisted statues from the depths, while divers in wetsuits, who had helped retrieve them, cheered from the shore.
“There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited, it’s only specific material according to strict criteria,” Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said.
“The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage,” he added.
The underwater ruins revealed by the ministry on Thursday include limestone buildings that may have served as places of worship, residential spaces and commercial or industrial structures.
Reservoirs and rock-carved ponds for domestic water storage and fish cultivation were also uncovered.
Other notable finds were statues of royal figures and sphinxes from the pre-Roman era, including a partially preserved sphinx with the cartouche of Ramses II, one of the country’s most famous and longest-ruling ancient pharaohs.
Many of the statues are missing body parts, including a beheaded Ptolemaic figure made of granite, and the lower half of a Roman nobleman’s likeness carved from marble.
A merchant ship, stone anchors and a harbor crane dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman eras were found at the site of a 125-meter dock, which the ministry said was used as a harbor for small boats until the Byzantine period.
Alexandria is home to countless ancient ruins and historic treasures, but Egypt’s second city is at risk of succumbing to the same waters that claimed Canopus and Heracleion.
The coastal city is especially vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels, sinking by more than three millimeters every year.
Even in the United Nations’ best-case scenario, a third of Alexandria will be underwater or uninhabitable by 2050.
Egypt reveals 2,000-year-old ruins discovered in Alexandria waters
https://arab.news/gjkbd
Egypt reveals 2,000-year-old ruins discovered in Alexandria waters
- On Thursday, cranes slowly hoisted statues from the depths, while divers in wetsuits, who had helped retrieve them, cheered from the shore
US lawmakers press Israel to probe strike on reporters in Lebanon
- “The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said
- Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured
WASHINGTON: Several Democratic lawmakers called Thursday for the Israeli and US governments to fully investigate a deadly 2023 attack by the Israeli military on journalists in southern Lebanon.
The October 13, 2023 airstrike killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah and wounded six other reporters, including two from AFP — video journalist Dylan Collins and photographer Christina Assi, who lost her leg.
“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets the international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this,” Senator Peter Welch told a news conference, with Collins by his side.
The lawmaker from Collins’s home state of Vermont said he had been pushing for answers for two years, first from the administration of Democratic president Joe Biden and now from the Republican White House of Donald Trump.
The Israeli government has “stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch added.
“With the Israeli government, we have been extremely patient, and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability,” he said.
“The IDF has made no effort, none, to seriously investigate this incident,” Welch said, referring to the Israeli military, adding that it has told his office its investigation into the incident is closed.
Collins called for Washington to publicly acknowledge the attack in which an American citizen was injured.
“But I’d also like them to put pressure on their greatest ally in the Middle East, the Israeli government, to bring the perpetrators to account,” he said, echoing the lawmakers who called the attack a “war crime.”
“We’re not letting it go,” Vermont congresswoman Becca Balint said. “It doesn’t matter how long they stonewall us.”
AFP conducted an independent investigation which concluded that two Israeli 120mm tank shells were fired from the Jordeikh area in Israel.
The findings were corroborated by other international probes, including investigations conducted by Reuters, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
Unlike Welch’s assertion Thursday that the Israeli probe was over, the IDF told AFP in October that “findings regarding the event have not yet been concluded.”
