Thonis-Heracleion found under Abu Qir Bay
In 2000 Franck Goddio's IEASM team, working with Egypt's antiquities authorities, located the drowned port city of Thonis-Heracleion about 7 km off the coast near Alexandria, at about 6 m depth.
2000 CE · 31.31, 30.10 · status: official
The account
A stele of Nectanebo I found in the temple area proved that Egyptian Thonis and Greek Heracleion were one city, previously thought to be two places on land. The city flourished from the 6th to the 4th century BCE and had sunk by the end of the 8th century CE through earthquakes, subsidence and liquefaction of the delta. Divers found colossal statues, temple remains and some seventy ancient ships, the largest such deposit known. Herodotus had placed a temple of Heracles here; legend tied the place to Paris and Helen.
The sceptical view
A documented archaeological site; its 'lost city' fame comes from the media, not from any mystery.
Connections in the atlas
- Christ of the Abyss, San Fruttuoso
- Underwater Dwarka
- Pavlopetri, the oldest drowned town
- Baiae, the drowned resort of Rome
- Plato places Atlantis beyond the Pillars of Hercules