Finding Heracleion City

Heracleion is a city in Egypt that shrouded by myth, even some who regard it as a fairy tale. Told that Heracleion is a legend city that has a tremendous wealth at that time. It's also mentioned in Homer that the city has visited by Helen of Troy and her lover, Paris.

In some books it's written that the city has lost in the Mediterranean Sea and buried in sand and mud for more than 1,200 years.

In the last decade, the archaeologists managed to find the bright side and prove the existence of the city with some archaeological discovery is believed to be the remains of the civilization of the city of Heracleion.

Known as Heracleion to the ancient Greeks and Thonis to ancient Egyptian the city was rediscovered in 2000 by French underwater archaeologist Dr. Franck Goddio and a teams from the European Institute for Underwater Acheology (IEASM) after a geophysical survey for four years.

Of the geographical location where the city was found, showing that Thonis-Heracleion city has linking an important international trade route. According to the Telegraph, leading research now suggests that Thonis-Heracleion served as a mandatory port of entry for trade between the Mediterranean and the Nile.

Researchers have also uncovered a variety of religious artifacts in the sunken city, including 16-foot stone sculptures thought to have adorned the city's central temple and limestone sarcophagi that are believed to have contained mummified animals. of these findings can be stated that there is the possibility of the city is a important religious center also.

So far, 64 ancient shipwrecks and more than 700 anchors have been unearthed from the mud of the bay. Other findings include gold coins, weights from Athens (which have never before been found at an Egyptian site) and giant tablets inscribed in ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian. Researchers think that these artifacts point to the city's prominence as a bustling trade hub.

Experts have marveled at the variety of artifacts found and have been equally impressed by how well preserved they are.

"The archaeological evidence is simply overwhelming," Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, a University of Oxford archeologist taking part in the excavation, said in a press release obtained by The Huffington Post. “By lying untouched and protected by sand on the sea floor for centuries they are brilliantly preserved."

A panel of experts presented their findings at an Oxford University conference on the Thonis-Heracleion excavation earlier this year.

But despite all the excitement over the excavation, one mystery about Thonis-Heracleion remains largely unsolved: Why exactly did it sink? Goddio's team suggests the weight of large buildings on the region's water-logged clay and sand soil may have caused the city to sink in the wake of an earthquake.

Here is a video documentary of the digging artifacts Heracleion City.