Page 53: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2017)

Sunken Cities

Long-lost Egyptian Artifacts

Are Coming to the U.S.

olossal, 16-foot-tall sculptures and precious artifacts re- cently excavated from ancient submerged cities will be among the underwater treasures on display as part of the

CSunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds exhibit in St. Louis,

Mo. in 2018.

The Nile delta city Thonis-Heracleion (a modern arrangement of the city’s Egyptian and Greek names) reached its pinnacle as Egypt’s main Mediterranean port from 664–332 BC, but by 800 AD, natu- ral catastrophes such as earthquake and soil liquefaction had caused

Thonis-Heracleion and nearby community Canopus to submerge into the sea.

The ruins remained undiscovered for more than 1,000 years until

French archeologist Franck Goddio, president of the European Insti- tute for Underwater Archaeology, found the long-lost underwater city more than four miles off the Egyptian coast.

The discoveries made by Goddio and his underwater excavation team at Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus are considered some the greatest