In pics: Story of sunken antiquities in Egypt's Alexandria

CAIRO - 18 August 2022: Egypt has many rare artifacts that were recently discovered and excavations are always underway to unveal these treasures from underground, as well as under seabed.

 

Ehab Fahmy, head of the Central Department of Sunken Antiquities at the Ministry of Tourism, confirmed that excavations are still ongoing in a number of sites discovering more of the charm of the Egyptian civilization, adding that Alexandria has a large share from the size of the sunken antiquities in Egypt.

 

 

 

He pointed out that in Alexandria there are five sites of sunken antiquities under the seabed, which are the eastern port, Qaitbay Castle, Shatby, Maamoura, and finally Abu Qir Bay.

 

"The eastern port is the most important archaeological site in Alexandria, as part of the old royal quarter, where the remains of the old eastern port docks are still under the current Alexandria Corniche, in addition to finding important artifacts from the royal quarter, in addition to the sunken boat and the statue of the priest carrying the canopic vessel and stone pieces in the form of a snake," he continued. 

 

 

 

He explained that so far, the discovery of Cleopatra's Palace in the Shatby area has not been confirmed, but there is a great diversity in the sunken antiquities, which were discovered in various sites in Alexandria.

 

Among those discoveries are the Pharaonic and Ptolemaic monuments, where the Ptolemies used to decorate their temples with Pharaonic monuments and about tourist diving trips inside this open museum from The sunken antiquities.

 

"There are already tourist diving trips organized by the diving center of the Permanent Committee of Antiquities, and there is a site open to receive these trips to see the sunken antiquities in front of Qaitbay Citadel, where the marine protection project that was recently implemented in the Citadel of Qaitbay, which led to the clarity of vision under the water and the presence of huge artifacts weighing up to tons, allow the pleasure of diving tourism for the sunken antiquities," he said. 

 

 

 

Regarding dealing with rare artifacts that are recovered from the seabed, Ehab Fahmy said: "The administration has 3 stores to preserve antiquities, but the artifacts that were recovered from the sea are initially treated before storage, in order to treat the salt content and maintain and restore antiquities.

 

Then they are transferred to the stores, and there is a committee formed by the Ministry of Antiquities that selects the artifacts to put them in the various museums, where there are pieces of sunken antiquities that were placed in the National Museum, the Roman Museum, the Egyptian Museum, the Library of Alexandria Museum, the Grand Museum, the Matrouh Museum and Hurghada, in addition to some sunken antiquities pieces that were displayed in the “Treasures of Egypt Sunken” exhibition, which has been touring the countries of the world since 2005, visiting America, Europe and Japan.