The legendary beginnings of Heracleion go back as far as the 12th Century BC, and it’s mentioned multiple times by ancient Greek historians. The city was said by Herodotus to have been visited by Helen of Troy before the Trojan war began. It is also said to be the site where the divine hero Heracles took his first footsteps in Africa.
Known as Thonis by the Egyptians, Heracleion was originally built on adjoining islands in the Nile River delta and was intersected by canals with a number of harbors and anchorages. The city was one of Egypt's main ports for international trade and the collection of taxes.
Around 150 B.C., several major earthquakes followed by tidal waves led to a 110-square-kilometer portion of the Nile delta collapsing under the sea, taking Heracleion with it. It has been left relatively undisturbed beneath the sea for thousands of years, with sand and other debris covering the remains of the city and making accidental discovery very unlikely.
In the early 2000s, however, a group of divers working off the Egyptian coast found a large piece of rock under the seabed and brought it up to land. It was a section of Hapy, the God of fertility, whose statue stood at the Western mouth of the Nile as a gatekeeper for Heracleion. They continued searching and eventually unearthed six more pieces, along with other treasures including the ruins of temples, shards of pottery, precious jewelry, coins, oil lamps, processional barges, and busts.
As the years have gone on, more and more artifacts continue to be found. In 2021, a team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, led by French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, uncovered new parts of the underwater city. The new discoveries include remains of a large tumulus - a Greek funerary area - along with “sumptuous finery offerings” that suggested “spectacular ceremonies must have taken place there.”
The discovery of these kinds of artifacts within Heracleion points to the interplay between Pharaonic and Greek societies and the role trade played in binding the two together. Ongoing surveys and excavations of Heracleion bring new knowledge of the fallen city every year...
