Posted on 10/11/2008 2:56:01 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...in the early 1990s Goddio began to work on the other side of Alexandria's harbor, opposite the fortress. He discovered columns, statues, sphinxes and ceramics associated with the Ptolemies' royal quarter -- possibly even the palace of Cleopatra herself... he has found that much of ancient Alexandria sank beneath the waves and remains remarkably intact. Using sophisticated sonar instruments and global positioning equipment, and working with scuba divers, Goddio has discerned the outline of the old port's shoreline. The new maps reveal foundations of wharves, storehouses and temples as well as the royal palaces that formed the core of the city, now buried under Alexandrian sand. Radiocarbon dating of wooden planks and other excavated material shows evidence of human activity from the fourth century b.c. to the fourth century a.d.... geologist Jean-Daniel Stanley... found evidence that ancient Alexandrians knew their city was sinking: Greek and Roman engineers shored up foundations of buildings and wharves along the harbor to halt the city's submergence...
On August 21, in a.d. 365, the sea suddenly drained out of the harbor, ships keeled over, fish flopped in the sand. Townspeople wandered into the weirdly emptied space. Then, a massive tsunami surged into the city, flinging water and ships over the tops of Alexandria's houses, according to a contemporaneous description by Ammianus Marcellinus based on eyewitness accounts. That disaster, which may have killed 50,000 people in the city alone, ushered in a two-century period of seismic activity and rising sea levels that radically altered the Egyptian coastline. Alexandria was relatively fortunate compared with other cities in the region, particularly those situated on Nile sediment. Heraklion, Canopus and Menouthis vanished entirely.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
Unearthing Egypt’s Greatest Temple
Smithsonian magazine | October 2007 | Andew Lawler
Posted on 11/01/2007 9:33:14 AM PDT by BGHater
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1919561/posts
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SC? Is that you?
Breaking Tsunami Waves
What am I missing?
“What am I missing?”
Nothing. Don’t make waves.
Ah. Good advice!
Sayyyy....don’t I know you from somewhere?
Dunno - do I look familiar?
Thanks Goonch.
:’)
You’re so good!
;o]
That was YOU???
(OMG!)
It would be wonderful if ancient Alexandria is mostly preserved under the sand and water, since it was the second city of the Roman Empire before the rise of Constantinople. It would almost be the same as ancient Rome being buried in place of Pompeii, since it would make most of the great city recoverable. (Obviously the loss of Rome would otherwise have been a calamity for future history).
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