Objects recovered from the harbor of Alexandria and the underwater remains of the city of Thonis-Heracleion on display at the Egypt's Lost Cities exhibit in the Ronald Reagan Presidental Library and Museum

Objects recovered from the harbor of Alexandria and the underwater remains of the city of Thonis-Heracleion on display at the Egypt's Lost Cities exhibit in the Ronald Reagan Presidental Library and Museum.
Thonis-Heracleion, was an ancient Egyptian city located near the Canopic Mouth of the Nile, about 32 km (20 miles) northeast of Alexandria. Its ruins are located in Abu Qir Bay, currently 2.5 km off the coast, under 10 m (30 ft) of water. Heracleion is mentioned by many chroniclers in antiquity, including Herodotus, Strabo and Diodorus. The city was said by Herodotus to have been visited by Paris and Helen of Troy who sought refuge there on their flight from the jealous Menelaus before the Trojan War. In the Late Period of ancient Egypt it was the country's main port for international trade and collection of taxes. During the time when the city especially flourished between the 6th and 4th centuries B.C.E., a large temple of Amun-Gereb, the supreme god of the Egyptians at the time, was located in the middle of the city and the Pharaoh Nectanebo I made many additions to the temple in the 4th century B.C.E.








Images (Top to Bottom): Bust of a God, probably the Nile God, Roman period, 2nd century CE. Head of a priest recovered from the eastern harbor in Alexandria, Ptolemaic period (305-30 BCE) , black granite. Sphinx from the reign of Nectanebo II (360-343 BCE) recovered from the remains of the now underwater city of Thonis-Heracleion, black granite. All objects now in the collection of the Maritime Museum in Alexandria, Egypt. Images courtesy of Allan Gluck.

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