Written By :Nermin Sami
The underwater archaeology is one of the modern sciences, not more than two centuries, a permanent interest started by the beginning of the twentieth century upon the discovery of the remainder of the sunken ship near by "Anticthera" in Greece in 1900.
And the invention of regulator by Cousteau in 1943 was a beginning to proceed with underwater excavations. And it's only in the early '50s that Cousteau himself began to do underwater archaeological excavations.
The beginning of the underwater archaeology work in Egypt:
(City of Alexandria- Egypt)
This science was known by the mid nineties in Egypt, which motivated the supreme council of Antiquities to establish a special administration for submerged monuments by the end of 1996; The credit for this returned to the picking up of artifacts from the sea near by Qaitbey’s Fort which named Al Fanar place in 1995, also to the discovery of the Eastern Harbor in 1996 .
But the question why this science started so late in Egypt? In Alexandria during the Second World War there was a difficulty to dive, because there was a continuous state of war. The area was continuously occupied by the Egyptian Marines. And you have to get a lot of permits to be able to dive, and it's somewhat difficult to get these permits. besides The Northern coast of Egypt is difficult for diving.
the first work done in this field going back to the year 1908 when an engineer named "Maval" discovered the remainder of an old pier while working in the Dekhila Gulf.
In 1910, while expanding Alexandria western Harbor “Gaston Jondet” French engineer discovered sunken establishments which appeared to look like ancient harbor sidewalks to the west of the Pharos island.
The chance had played an important role in discovering the first site for submerged monuments in Egypt. A British pilot had noticed the remainder of a sunken ship while flying above Abu Qeir Gulf.
He reported the location to the prince "Omar Tusson" who was known for his passion for antiquities, and who was a member of The Royal Antiquities Association in Alexandria then, the prince carried out financing the process of searching, and in May 5, 1933, the divers went to the mentioned area to find a head made of marble for Alexander the Great, now sited in the Graeco – Roman Museum.
Prince Omar Toson had noticed that the place where he found the statue of Alexander's head represents a temple and the place in its east side represents a residential city, when he compared this discovery with the old sources, he connected these places by Minotes city. He was able to identify Heraclium(herakleion) city on the map, which he published in 1934.
Then, in the sixties Kamal Abu El Saadat was the hero, he was one of the Egyptian divers , his work focused on the water under the citadel of Qait Bey and the Cape Lochias(modern El Silsila) ,In 1962 he lifted a life- size statue of a Roman man made of granite without a head and feet from silsila area.
(Kamel Abul-Saadat on the Pharos site,during the field work of a UNESCO mission in October 1968.Source: H. Fro,UNESCO site :http://www.unesco.org/csi/pub/papers2/alex7.htm)
In the same year, he found a huge statue for a woman made of granite on her chest Isis's knot which had made specialists believe that it’s a statue of the Goddess "Isis Faria". Abu EL- Saadat continued his discoveries; he made two maps for the discovered places, and handed them over to the Greco – Roman Museum. During his life, he was an experienced guide for several missions that worked in the same field.
In 1983, Jacques Dumas and the French navy in coordination with the Egyptian navy discovered the head ship of Napoleon’s fleet "Orient" in depth of eleven meters, eight kms from the shore of Abu Qeir gulf. They had worked for three seasons, they found three more pieces, unfortunately after his death in 1985, the documents of domes had disappeared, but the locations of the ships are still known.
In 1986, the location of "Patriot" was specified, it was the search ship which accompanied the French attack against Egypt; it was drowned close to Agami.
Many objects and equipments belonging to the possessions of the fleet were picked up including iron cannons, some parts of ships, uniforms of the crews like shoes &belts, some coins of gold, silver, and bronze , and day-to-day life's tools. These pieces were exhibited in Qaitbey’s Fort museum after its restoration then transferred to the storage of the marine museum in Stanly to be exhibited after its construction.
By the beginning of the nineties, the submerged monuments field had witnessed a big interest from foreign missions and concerned scientific authorities, and they started working in searching and drilling for submerged monuments in Egypt,most important sites they worked on:
1-The Eastern harbor site:
(After sixteen centuries underwater, treasure is being pulled from Alexandria's Eastern port -photo by Hussein Fathy)
- The Excavation work has been undertaken by IEASM (Institute European for submerged monuments",supervised by Mr. Frank Goddio(French Mission) .
-Discovered the sunken Royal district in the eastern harbor. in addition to 1000 artifacts and remains of ancient palaces .
2-Qaitbey's fort site:
- The chief of this mission is Prof.Jean Eve Am Empreur, head of CEA (Centre D'Etudes D'Alexandrie).
-worked in Qaitbey's fort area since 1994 up until now, The present Citadel in this site was built on the ruins of lighthouse Pharos.
- Found more than 3000 pieces in 6-8 m deep in the sea, varied from statues, sphinxes obelisks,columns , blocks of different sizes, weights and materials, dated to Greco-roman period with a few finds dated from the pharaonic period which were removed from their original locations to be reused in buildings been constructed during the Ptolemaic period like the light house (Pharos), they are now displayed in open air museum at kom El-Dikka close to the so –called Roman Theater.
-The mission is doing the registration and the archeological survey for the north side area of the fort searching for the reminder of sunken ships to prepare a map for these ships and the marine routes and commerce for these ships.
3- Abukir site :
Abukir in antiquity was occupied by a number of settlements, some were dated to the time before the arrival of Alexander the Great, each has its own cult and temple by which it was known, like Canop with the cult of Osiris & temple of Serapis ,Minotes the 2nd century Roman settlement known for its temple of Isis ,and The Heraclium with a temple for the cult of Heracles.
The first attempt to reveal the underwater history of these cities was undertaken by the Egyptian prince Omar Tousson in 1933 when a marble head of Alexander The Great was discovered near Minotes ..later the excavations came up with more discoveries like structures that once belonged to the temple of Isis.
(Priest carrying an effigy of Osiris of Canopus found on the Antirhodos Island near the two sphinxes.©Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation)
As for Canop Island( known now as the island of Nelson) dated to the 5th century B.C. to the 7th century A.C., Canop was a residential settlement and used as a stop point that supplied leaving ships with provisions .in this site a naval battle took place in 1798 between the French fleet and its rival the English, three ships sank and their wrecks were found in 1996-1997 located south east of the Island.
(The lighthouse of Pharos ) From the fourth century until the 14th century there were earthquakes in Alexandria. In the Arab sources alone you have more than 20 mentions of earthquakes which affected the lighthouse. And we know that in the 14th century, after the Arabs had made some repairs to the lighthouse, the lighthouse collapsed due to very severe earthquakes.
There is a map in Montpelier, a town in southern France, which indicates that in 1303 the lighthouse of Alexandria was destroyed. In fact, there is an Arab traveler; his name is Ibn Battuta, who came to Alexandria in 1326 for the first time. And he writes, "I could have access to the door of the first floor of the lighthouse." And when he comes back to Alexandria in 1349, he says, "No access to this door. Everything here has collapsed." So in fact, in the first half of the 14th century that very strong earthquake put an end to this tower. This earthquake made the lighthouse collapse in a kind of line from the seashore.
(Next :Alexandria Submerged Antiquities in Egyptian museums)
