The seabed is a real museum, in which the history of long-gone civilizations is kept under the water column. Not everyone can see priceless artifacts. Among such lucky ones was Frank Goddio - "French Indiana Jones", who discovered the mysterious ancient city of Heracleon under water.
For centuries, this city, like Atlantis, was considered a legend. Information about him has been preserved only in the works of ancient Greek historians. In their chronicles, they described in detail a huge temple, which was built on the place where Hercules first set foot on the land of Egypt. And this religious building stood in the city of Heracleon.
According to one version, the city was located at the mouth of the Nile, not far from Alexandria, and was founded by Alexander the Great himself in 331 BC. It was considered the sea gate of Egypt, the center of Mediterranean trade and the fiefdom of the Ptolemaic dynasty. In the works of Homer, you can also find information that Heracleon was visited by Helen of Troy and Paris. It was here that the couple in love fled, fleeing the wrath of the beauty's husband - the king of Sparta Menelaus. It is said that even the femme fatale Cleopatra VII was crowned in Heracleon.
Fun without borders
This city was famous for all kinds of entertainment establishments and affordable women. Recently, the Alexandrian nobility chose Heracleon as a place of rest and entertainment. The ancient Greek historian and geographer Strabo described the life of the townspeople of Heracleon as idle and immoral.
By the way, prostitution in those days was a common phenomenon. With whitened faces and eyes drawn with soot, venal women, completely openly, conducted their ancient craft. And images of love orgies were almost the main theme of the art of that time. Moreover, explicit images of copulation were not at all considered pornography, and all public places were adorned with sexual paintings.
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Moreover, the canvases of pornographic content became the object of worship and admiration. Artists were especially appreciated for their ability to convey to buyers of such masterpieces all their sexual intensity. The presence of such paintings underlined the high social status and wealth of their owner. But marital fidelity was the exception rather than the rule.
Perhaps this ancient Las Vegas would have flourished further if at one fine moment it had not gone under water as a result of a global cataclysm. What happened over a thousand years ago? Perhaps this area experienced a terrible flood, and under the weight of the waves, the swampy lands at the mouth of the Nile sank under the water along with everything that was on them?
Or is it the fault of a strong earthquake, as a result of which a huge area went underground and then was flooded by the waters of the Mediterranean Sea? Or maybe the Lord sent a curse on the city, like on Sodom and Gomorrah? Historians are trying to find an answer to this question.
And the waves closed
There are different versions of the death of the city. One by one, it was wiped off the face of the earth by an earthquake of destructive power, similar to the one that occurred in 365 AD on the island of Crete. Its strength according to the current classification is about 8.5 points. As a result of the earthquake, the sea level rose by several meters. Something similar happened about 7 thousand years ago and off the coast of Norway, when a series of underwater earthquakes caused a terrible cataclysm: thousands of square kilometers of the continental shelf turned into the seabed.
In addition, as it turned out, the city was built on a large layer of clay - a material very convenient for construction. During the tremors, when giant waves began to fall on Heracleon, the clay was saturated with water, and the city fell through it into the abyss. Over the centuries, the clay itself was washed away, and the island on which the city stood was gone. Perhaps it was a tsunami that repeatedly destroyed many areas of the Mediterranean coast, in particular Central and Southern Greece, Northern Libya, Egypt, Cyprus and Sicily.
But there is an opinion that Heracleon was destroyed by the Creator himself, who was tired of looking at the debauchery and drunkenness blooming there in magnificent color. For the edification of people, he sent a flood to the city, which swept from the face of the earth the sinful hearth of civilization.
Archaeological finds indicate that the tragedy happened suddenly. And people in a hurry left their homes, abandoning all material values.
Museum in the depths
The sunken city was discovered in 2000 by a team of researchers led by French Egyptologist and European Institute of Underwater Archeology researcher Frank Goddio. This scientist with an adventurous streak has already managed to make many interesting discoveries and finds in the port of Alexandria. Therefore, when he proposed to the Egyptian authorities to start searching for the mythical city, they gave their consent.
The search for Heracleon was carried out in extreme conditions. The researchers made a detailed map of the bottom, located at a depth of 6 to 12 meters from the surface, using electronic and computer technology. If we consider that the visibility in the search area due to the very large amount of silt was no more than twenty centimeters, then we can say that the scientists worked almost by touch. They shoveled mud and silt over an area of about a hundred meters with the help of suction pumps equipped with filters so that some valuable find would not slip into this “unit” and break. If they didn’t find anything, then the scuba divers went up to receive the next task.
And then one day scuba divers stumbled upon an ancient wall of 150 meters in length. And then the first valuable items began to appear: a bronze mirror, spoons, even women's jewelry … It became clear that in the depths of the bay, on a large area (about 80 hectares), there is a large city that sank under water many centuries ago.
The fact that the ruins belonged to Heracleon became clear from several sites. Among them are a temple dedicated to the Egyptian god Amun and his son Khons (the latter in ancient Greek mythology corresponds to Hercules), as well as a stele with an inscription.
Objects discovered during excavations and raised to the surface testify to the greatness of the city during its heyday. In total, many gold coins and jewelry were found, several statues of gods, sarcophagi, ritual objects and ceramics, as well as dozens of sunken ships. Most of the coins and pottery date back to the 6th-4th centuries BC. e. - Probably, an older settlement was located on the site of the future city. Many objects have been very well preserved as they were covered with a layer of sand.
The scuba divers found very large statues made of pink granite, lying under the water, as if knocked down from their pedestals by an unknown force. Among the statues was found an image of Cleopatra, made in the Greek-Egyptian style. This statue of the queen was once located in the city cathedral of Amon-Gereb. Only after the statue of the queen had lain in the darkness of silt for about two thousand years, it saw the light again: the statue was raised from the bottom of the bay to the surface. A ten-meter statue of Hapi, the god of fertility and the floods of the Nile, was also found here. She lay face down at the bottom, apparently turned over by the tide … All these creations of ancient sculptors are perfectly preserved.
In addition, inscriptions carved in stone were found on the territory of the temple, containing detailed information about the life of the city and contacts with other countries.
The underwater landscape of the city recreates a picture of what Heracleon looked like in the era of his highest development. This can also be judged by the remains of a grandiose temple dedicated to the supreme god Amon-Gereb. The most surprising thing about this find is the perfect condition, in which the found objects, whose age exceeds 1200 years, have been preserved.
Natural protection in the form of sea silt and sand allowed most of the artifacts to survive to this day in almost original form. According to Frank Goddio, these waters continue to lurk an infinite number of artifacts and an important piece of history that will take at least another 200 years to study.
Irina EROFEEVA
