Sam Random

In ancient times, the city of Thonis-Heracleion, known in modern tiles as the lost kingdom of Cleopatra served as a gateway to Egypt. Today, this mysterious legendary city is submerged in Egypt’s Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria, Egypt. Why the city sank remains a mystery, but it was swallowed by the Mediterranean Sea and has been buried in sand and mud for more than 1200 years... New amazing underwater discoveries allow archeologists to piece together clues and to create an image of what life was like in the ancient city. Known as Heracleion to the ancient Greeks and Thonis to the ancient Egyptians the city was rediscovered in 2000 by French underwater archaeologist  Dr. Franck Goddio and a team from the European Institute for Underwater Acheology (IEASM) after a four-year geophysical survey. “Prior to its discovery in 2000 by the IEASM, no trace of Thonis-Heracleion had been found. Its name was almost razed from the memory of mankind, only preserved in ancient classic texts and rare inscriptions found on land by archaeologists. Greek historian Herodotus (5th Century BC) tells us of a great temple that was built where the famous hero Herakles first set foot on to Egypt. He also reports of Helen’s visit to Heracleion with her lover Paris before the Trojan War. More than four centuries after Herodotus’ visit to Egypt, the geographer Strabo observed that the city of Heracleion, which possessed the temple of Herakles, is located straight to the east of Canopus at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the River Nile,” Dr. Frank Goddio writes on his website. As we have previously seen in our article Lost Kingdom Of Cleopatra – An Amazing Egyptian Underwater City scientists believe that the entire city was completely submerged, along with all the artifacts, statues, columns and other beauties of the palace of Cleopatra. Several of the submerged artifacts remained largely intact. Amongst the discoveries were the foundations of the palace, shipwrecks, red granite columns, and statues of the goddess Isis and a sphinx. Among the massive limestone blocks toppled in the fourth century was a huge quartzite block with an engraving of a pharaoh. An inscription indicates it depicts Seti I, father of Ramses II. Divers also discovered a colossal stone head believed to be of Caesarion, son of Cleopatra and previous lover Julius Caesar, and two sphinxes, one of them probably representing Cleopatra’s father, Ptolemy XII. Researchers believe that the city was a central area used as a customs hub where trade coming from Greece and other places in the Mediterranean entered Egypt. “The site has amazing preservation. We are now starting to look at some of the more interesting areas within it to try to understand life there,” said Dr. Damian Robinson, who is working on the site and is director of the Oxford Center for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford. “We are getting a rich picture of things like the trade that was going on there and the nature of the maritime economy in the Egyptian late period. There were things that were coming in from Greece and the Phoenicians.” “It is a major city we are excavating,” Robinson said. Everyone who finds underwater archeology a fascinating subject can now look forward to Dr. Giddo’s new documentary that will highlight the major discoveries that have been unearthed at Thonis-Heracleion during a 13-year excavation. 📷 : French Marine archaeologist Frank Goddio explains text on the stele of Heracleion on a barge in an Alexandria naval base June 7, 2001. #archaeohistories

Legacy of the lost Great Zimbabwe : Great Zimbabwe was a medieval African city known for its large circular wall and tower. It was part of a wealthy African trading empire that controlled much of the East African coast from 11th-15th Centuries CE. Great Zimbabwe is the name of the stone ruins of an ancient city near modern day Masvingo, Zimbabwe. People lived in Great Zimbabwe beginning around 1100 CE, but abandoned it in 15th Century CE. The city was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which was a Shona (Bantu) trading empire. Zimbabwe means “stone houses” in Shona. Great Zimbabwe was part of a large and wealthy global trading network. Archaeologists have found pottery from China and Persia, as well as Arab coins in the ruins there. The elite of the Zimbabwe Empire controlled trade up and down the east African coast. However, city was largely abandoned by 15th Century CE, as the Shona people migrated elsewhere. The exact reasons for the abandonment are unknown, but it is likely that exhaustion of resources and overpopulation were contributing factors. Archaeological site at Great Zimbabwe consists of several sections. The first section is the Hill Complex, a series of structural ruins that sit atop the steepest hill of the site. This is generally believed to have been the religious center of the site. Hill Complex is the oldest part of Great Zimbabwe, and shows signs of construction that date to around 900 CE. The ruins of the second section, Great Enclosure, are perhaps the most exciting. Great Enclosure, a walled circular area below the Hill Complex dating to 14th Century CE. The walls are over 9.7m high in places and enclosure’s circumference is 250m. The walls were built without mortar, relying on carefully shaped rocks to hold the wall’s shape on their own. Inside the enclosure is a second set of walls, following the same curve as outside walls, which end in a stone tower 10m high. While function of this enclosure is unknown, archeologists suggest it could have been a royal residence or a symbolic grain storage facility. It is one of largest existing structures from ancient sub-Saharan Africa. Third section is Valley Ruins. It consist of a significant number of houses made mostly of mud-brick (daga) near Great Enclosure. The distribution and number of houses suggests that Great Zimbabwe boasted a large population, between 10,000–20,000 people. Archaeological research has unearthed several soapstone bird sculptures in the ruins. These birds are thought to have served a religious function, and may have been displayed on pedestals. These birds appear on the modern Zimbabwean flag and are national symbols of Zimbabwe. The ruins of Great Zimbabwe were designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1986. There have only been a limited number of archaeological excavations of the site. Unfortunately, significant  looting and destruction occurred in 20th Century CE, at the hands of European visitors. Although they were all too happy to explore and loot ruins of Great Zimbabwe, in their racism, European  colonists thought the city was too sophisticated to have been built by Africans, and instead thought it had been built by Phoenicians or other non-African people. However, despite damage done by these colonial looters, today, legacy of Great Zimbabwe lives on as one of the largest and most culturally important archaeological sites of its kind in Africa. #archaeohistories