Ancient Heraklion was hidden from the surface of the earth by an earthquake for several millennia. His discovery surprised scientists. And although Heraklion is not Atlantis (the legend of Atlantis is much older), their stories are very similar
The lost city was discovered under water after 1200 years.
The main seaport at the mouth of the Nile, Heraklion was a small but thriving city. Its inhabitants, thanks to contacts with foreign merchants and sailors who often visited the city on the way to Egypt, were educated people with a wide outlook. The main temple of the city was dedicated to the god Amon.
But in the blink of an eye, Heraklion disappeared. In the first century BC. there was a strong earthquake, which razed houses to the ground, sank ships in the harbor, killed most of the city's inhabitants, forcing the rest to flee, leaving all valuable property.
For two millennia, the ruins of the city, hidden from prying eyes by silt and ten meters of water, lay 3 kilometers from the coast of Alexandria in the Abukir Bay.
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But last summer, French archaeologist Franck Gaudeau announced that he had discovered the remains of a city that he believed to belong to Heraklion: a black granite slab or stele bearing the word “Heraklion” on it, the remains of ten ships in the former harbor, and thousands of others. items including jewelry, coins, vases and personal items.
Although little is known about this city to modern scientists, the entire ancient world knew it. The Greek historian Diodorus wrote that Hercules, the son of Zeus, blocked the course of the Nile and thereby saved the lives of people who were on the banks of the river.
In gratitude, people erected a temple named after him and named the city in his honor. According to another Greek historian, Herodotus, Helen the Beautiful and her beloved Paris fled to Heraklion, fleeing the wrath of Helena's husband, Menelaus, but they were forced to return by Tonis, the guardian of the gate of the Nile.
The Greek historian of the 6th century tells about these events somewhat differently. Stesichor. He says that the Greeks were deceived by the gods about the whereabouts of Helena the Beautiful in order to reduce the population of Troy through war. In fact, Stesichor believes, during the Trojan War, Elena was in Heraklion.
An inscription on the base of the stela certifies that this slab was to have been erected at Herakleion-Thonis. This is the first clear evidence that the discovered city is still semi-mythical Heraklion.
Archaeologist Franck Gaudio found no evidence of Elena the Beautiful staying here, but his discovery seems fantastic. One of the first was found the great temple of Heraklion.
The remains of thick stone walls indicate the border of its territory. Near the destroyed walls, archaeologists have found three huge statues of pink granite, which were allegedly destroyed in an earthquake. Two statues depict a still unknown pharaoh and his wife. The third statue is Hapi, the Egyptian god of the Nile flood.
Inside the temple is a monumental pink granite tomb covered with hieroglyphs. Its upper part is still difficult to read, but a preliminary translation of the texts placed on the lower parts shows that this is undoubtedly the temple of Heraklion. A number of scholars, including Manfred Klauss of the University of Frankfurt, believe that the final deciphering of the tomb inscriptions will yield even more.
Even more impressive is the two-meter black granite stele - an almost complete copy of the stele found in 1899 in Nokratj. This is the first case of duplication of steles in Egyptology. The stele from Nokratj, which is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, bears the text of the edict of Pharaoh Noctanebus the First, the founder of the 30th dynasty, who came to the throne in November 380 BC. This decree introduced a 10 percent tax on Greek artisans and goods in Nokratja and Tonis, which was to be used to build a temple to the goddess Neith.
The text ends with the words: "And His Majesty said:" Let this be carved on a stele erected in Nokratzha, on the banks of the Anu Canal. " The found stele does not differ from the first in anything, except for the last sentence, which says: "And His Majesty said:" Let this be carved on the stele installed at the entrance to the Greek sea in Heraklion-Tonis."
Gaudio's group also found the site of the Heraklion harbor, which now contains the wreckage of at least 10 ships piled up in a heap. This suggests that they were killed by the tidal wave that followed the earthquake.
Wherever the researchers examined the underwater city, they found a variety of objects. They all date from the first century BC. and earlier. Most of them are in good condition, despite being under water for 2 thousand years.
Among the finds are gold earrings, bracelets, hairpins, rings, combs, a beautiful Greek goblet covered with glaze, an incense burner for aromatic substances, hundreds of coins. All of them have only a slightly scratched surface. And this is just the beginning - the main excavations (if this concept can be applied to archaeological work under water) are ahead.