Sunken Ancient Egyptian City Discovered - Documentary

off the coast of Egypt northeast of Alexandria seven kilometers further out they're said to be a giant secret slumbering under the surface of the water this used to be the Nile Delta dotted by islands but over the past 2,000 years these islands have mysteriously disappeared a legendary City was supposedly once located here maybe even to the ancient texts the remains speak of a place called her our Cleon and also the place cooked Toni's legend or historical fact Frenchman from koryo first stumbled across this mystery some 30 years ago he met an archeologist who told him there could be some considers in Abu QIR Bay from that moment frog audio was hooked with the bombs of your supremo initially all we had were some documents mentioning two cities Iraq Lian and Torres only in ancient writings from Herodotus died odorous of Sicily and Strabo that was all well the thinking was that the canopic Nile Delta was where the Bay of Apple Kia is today Oh bin Ibuki and when I went there myself that was just water and nothing else to see duel so if there is anything there it must be under those waters see heavy controls said to bed swiftly even the world's top archaeologists had only a very vague idea of what lay slumbering beneath the bay of Abu QIR there's a lot of guesswork and there were comments in classical texts straight on people like that writing and Herodotus indeed writing about the Arian but giving clues but nothing at all specific and no one was really absolutely sure whether sidewalls what did life in the Nile Delta look like over two thousand years ago there are hardly any contemporary accounts one of the few that does exist is the Nile mosaic of Palestrina it depicts the bustle of everyday life temples and ships but it's not much used as evidence reality and imagination often overlap in such images and there were no artifacts from Gaudio sets out on a carefully planned journey into the past uber weird cynthy where could this city be there were very few sources but our auditors talked about a temple in Heraklion Theodorus talked about a port at the mouth of the Cano peon arm of the Nile Strabo described a city called tourists but also mentions her Ackley on a powder day hockey or okay there were very few texts since it and the texts were confusing they talked of Two Cities of Heraklion and this mysterious town of torez above them all patek needy care data nice this place seems to have been in its heyday about 500 BC but where was it and what did it look like it seems clear but it must have been a port what does that tell us about trade how much trading went on between the countries of the Mediterranean some ancient historians talk about this being the gate to Egypt for Greek ships here out at sea just a few kilometers from the present-day coast but would those writings really be backed up by evidence on the seafloor better evidence than just an old mosaic one big question is how important how extensive was long-distance maritime trade and what sort of interactions in particular were there between Egypt and the Greek world one view that's common among historians is that trade in classical antiquity wasn't terribly significant this is partly a fact that ancient writers don't talk about it terribly much and partly due to the fact that the research agenda of many classical archaeologists has been much more focused on the superb works of art and architecture so was there really so little trade in ancient Egypt or was it just not written about the search for answers begins a long way from Egypt here in Paris Kjetil from Gaudio is widely regarded as the pioneer of modern underwater archaeology and yet he never actually studied archaeology he's a mathematician and statistician qualifications that he will later put into practice in the search for the sunken city are already seeded opportunity in any sabbatic one day I decided to take some time out I wanted to do something worthwhile with my time he said you because of my passion for geology and my love of the sea I decided to learn everything there is to learn about underwater archaeology to sickies face of a broader a cohesive equity done by chance from Goryeo heard a story about the supposedly submerged city off the coast of Alexandria back in the 1940s a pilot described seeing strange shapes as he flew over the scene but nobody seems to be interested in his sightings from Gaudio asked the Egyptians to grant him a permit for a research expedition the Egyptians have faith in the Veridian but they insist that all Fine's be handed over to the egyptian state - the major challenge of course was that the bay is so big we didn't know where to start looking so we scoured the whole area about a hundred and fifty square kilometers this second key of it going this hitherto unknown Frenchman plunges into his once-in-a-lifetime project the academic world watches with interest the fear not male the Momofuku man when you get into a discipline where you're not an expert people look at you very skeptically it's normal you first have to prove you've got what it takes before people who've already achieved a lot on the field will take you seriously sweetie a lettuce your dijon ki Fonda shows a terrace on the seviche from Goryeo won't be put off he concentrates on his strengths as a mathematician and statistician he spends days in front of his laptop initially he sees the riddle of Heraklion torus as a calculable mathematical problem if you see adept in a posh default my methodology was completely different it was much more rational that had hitherto been the custom in maritime archaeology I investigated electromagnetic dragging technology which hadn't existed until then was Peshawar home any geek to that end I reached an agreement with a French Atomic Energy Commission to develop a nuclear magnetic resonance magnetometer technique or develop more the menu term it has a nice magnetic you Claire using this probe Gaudio has the base can't it takes years the research boat cuts back and forth according to a very precise plan it's hardly what you call an adventure but his strict procedure does deliver some results goatee or enters all the data into his computer by combining depth soundings and magnet ography he puts together a complex visualization of the seabed there are some unusual features there must be something there not until he's reached this point as ghadiyal start planning to take the plunge he puts together an international team of scientists and divers and initially jean-claude and the other divers find nothing the nearby city in its drainage the mouth of the Nile and the river mud all make the work very difficult conover significant it was difficult to see anything because of the poor visibility under water we could see about a metre maybe a little more you realize it's going to be difficult if you seems like you're blind HM Vogler it's not nice work jean-claude returns the research ship dozens of times without having found a thing Gaudio himself spends most of his time in front of his laptop he's the mastermind he directs his divers to places where the many years of seabed scanning have shown up anomalies finally the divers make a discovery together a free purchase head on the wall the first thing we could see was an encrusted stone or a block saddle wrong but but it was difficult to see what it was in the water I belong yet surely not the first thing we could make out seemed to be a series of holes in the veneer come they seem to be something there the super surrounded the fisa suffered for the cake show de vida are these really the first traces of Heraklion nortonís or necromancy we started on our first dig in reality it was really quite superficial basically just sweeping the surface and we discovered that the reef actually consisted of large limestone blocks blocks of limestone that was smooth and arranged next to each other right in Abu QIR Bay Pacific Ocean and that was it that was when the adventure began to II didn't ever Dario's methods seemed to work the location of the walls corresponds to the measurements already taken they've all said cardamom and there was a long magnetic line 150 meters in length to the south and we try to find out what was causing these magnetic signals so we began to dig right in the center and discovered a wall of large limestone blocks digging 75 meters further west the same wall yes 75 meters further east again the same war so we have this large limestone wall 150 meters long to the south there in man to the north we found an identical war parallel to it ah Hollen I said gradually the contours of a large structure emerge fit now it has to be identified minimum what kind of structure could this be submerged right in the middle of Abu QIR Bay you decide BW finally frog audio is convinced that he's discovered the legendary port the city is clearly more than just a vague myth the French autodidact decides to get some academic backup and not just anybody he approaches respected researchers at Oxford University's Institute for archaeology professor sir berry Cunliffe is one of the world's leading archaeologists and his colleague professor Andrew Wilson specializes in maritime trading in antiquity the oxford experts are stunned by what this unknown Frenchman tells them when Frank REO came to talk to us about the project most of us here hadn't heard very much about it because it hadn't become very public knowledge but we were absolutely staggered by what he had to show us it was almost unbelievable we we had no idea that there was such quality evidence just there beneath the sea so that meeting sticks with me for a very long time so what are these large limestone walls could they be the Magnificent temple of Heracles mentioned in some legends the international team of divers and archaeologists set off on further expeditions to Egypt they're accompanied by technicians restorers and Egyptologists they're going to scour the seabed and they plan with military precision the divers divide the seabed into numbered squares so they know exactly where they are in the murky water they really are looking for a needle in a haystack when they think they've found something the divers first have to suck away several meters of mud and sediment it involves a lot of luck as well here where they believe the temple should be they discover a large monolith perfectly preserved from goryeo's team of experts know what it is this model a--the is an ass a shrine which must have once stood in the holiest part of the mythical temple the nose and common even ours a large monument made of red granite with an inscription it was unbelievable because the nowis was a monolith which contained the altar room statue the most important statue in the altar room yes and the inscription on the monolith told us that it was the statue of Amon get up Simone you know every day yes sir we knew that we were in the famous temple of amun Guerrero and thus in Heraklion eco news each Oh Dorothy Jackie the Alan Gorham temple named after an Egyptian god the Greeks called the holy place the Heracles temple the shrine proves that it must have stood here as does what the divers discover next these finds surpassed their wildest expectations three colossal statues broken into just a few pieces but otherwise in a surprisingly good condition go on come on son warm this year when you see the outline of a hand or a head you realize this is something special it does get you excited and when we brought the statues up to the boat I thought wow that's really impressive kick shaza my Munden that moment the moment we found these statues it really was a magical moment yes it's yeah the statues are clearly a queen and a pharaoh the third figure is the god of the waters of the Nile magnificent images from the Potala mayic era that ended in 30 BC the three statues are put up right and freed of the worst crustaceans there then salvaged and go on a journey to exhibitions around the world having made these finds Franck audio is able to reconstruct the legendary temple Oh as I've assumed a new modest sack we have their structure that's 150 meters long and we know that this is the temple with its nas this monolithic shrine which included the statue of a monkey Deb and West so it's the temple of amel get up to the West at the entrance to the temple stood these fantastic colors I hewn of red granite this is a very significant temple we know that in these temples the new pharaohs were bestowed with their titles and power well yes you claim a more giving the temple was also very important to the Greeks as well this was where according to legend the Trojans hit Paris and the royal spouse Halina just before their love sparked the Trojan War the divers find more artifacts in the temple like this stone tub in which an image of the Egyptian god Osiris was laid out there's no doubt that Heraklion must have been an important religious site but where does the name tonus come from and beyond religion what was the city's significance the site promises to provide answers that can't be found in the history books Periclean is is so important because it is a key sight in the articulation of Mediterranean and and Egypt and it's all brilliantly preserved it sits under the water whereas if this had been a land sight it would probably have been built over and had centuries of destruction from other buildings on top of it but here beneath the water it is beautifully preserved this is one such object the kind of thing historians wouldn't have considered worthy of attention an anchor made of stone evidence perhaps of the shipping trade in antiquity these stone anchors were only effective because of their weight they weren't used by river barges they would have sunk in the mud of the Nile so it seems clear that large seaworthy ships must have anchored here the expedition team finds hundreds of these anchors Gaudio enters every single find on his data map slowly the outlines of the city become visible were no discipline to the north of the structure along this magnetic line we found many anchors busan is shaken and when we put together their locations they form a line the question is what could that be see kiss-kiss at the depth so feeling we carried out a dig in the middle and discovered the bottom of a canal with its layers one on top of the other 30 metres wide there west the same thing towards the western so it seems we have a canal that extends for several hundred meters here the divers work meter 4 meter along the former canal and they make another discovery and those first shipwrecks are not the last the divers find dozens more all concentrated in one area or knowest desuka nod to the northeast of the canal we discovered hundreds of anchors it offices aqua sea and between the anchors where the remains of ships a very many shipwrecks so we've definitely found a dock here without the best pottery and again the contours of the city become a little bit clearer the surprise was the sheer number of shipwrecks to find over 60 wrecked ships in the port is a phenomenal addition to our knowledge there's enormous potential for really reshaping our understanding of ancient shipbuilding technology it's particularly exciting that the kind of very characteristic shipbuilding tradition that Herodotus seems to talk about putting ships together with short pieces of wood almost like bricks he says with Tenon's that go through quite a number of boards almost every day jean-claude team of divers finds new wrecks the large number of finds is unique in archaeology what's particularly exciting is that some of these are not simply Nile barges but maybe seagoing ships that would argue for a rather more active involvement of Egyptian traders in maritime trade than we had assumed from the written record which tends to emphasize the role of Greeks and Phoenicians and other non Egyptians in maritime trade with Egypt it looks as if if the material from Heraklion includes seagoing ships as it may well do then we need to add Egyptians back into that picture too so it seems the 2,500 years ago the Egyptians were much more involved in maritime trade than had been thought the finds lend credence to the Nile mosaic which portrays busy shipping activity woopsie desta to the southeast of the temple we made a new discovery again a lot of shipwrecks dock it seems there was another dock with more than 65 ancient wrecks this proves that there was lots of trade going on documents as a result our topographical understanding of the city is much more precise seen that's great because this city corresponds exactly with the descriptions in the ancient documents we're at the gates of Egypt and at the entrance to the Greek Sea as the Egyptians call the Mediterranean and we have some very intense trading at this point from Gaudio and his divers change their strategy instead of focusing on large objects they concentrate on ceramics pots and vases which may give clues as to where the ships came from and what their loads were and how active trade was between Egypt and the other states around the Mediterranean to shine even more light into the darkness Fong Gaudio gets another expert on board Kathleen Greta Lou the French woman is a specialist in the identification of ancient pottery so as it exists an extraordinary solar cycle service despite the tectonic movements here sealers defines are an amazingly good condition like what somebody ate it or not mute witnesses of a way of life sunk and lost in the sand and mud but often completely intact Lhasa hammock is the Annie Lamott the pottery fines are among the many artifacts which were important for her a client's barter and trade with the whole of the Mediterranean region get busy some examples of this trade are amphoras which come from the island of Samos and from lesbos or emperors from Rhodes all of them from the eastern Mediterranean is not for killing the holder Tusa sort of bacterial telemedia honey there are all these different types of emperors and this has enabled us to prove that trading went on in order to earn more achieve the doggie keep having a hockey another piece of this huge puzzle the pottery like the anchors and the ships also confirm that Heraklion must have been a multicultural melting pot the dimensions of the find also surprised captain gutt Alou lassiter shucks for every time I see it it gives me a lot of pleasure intellectual satisfaction to see all this material in front of me every time it's a piece of history they bring up to the surface and heracleum is an exceptional place more incredible finds which give a much better idea of how Egyptians and Greeks lived here religious and everyday objects the crown from a small statue of a pharaoh life here must have been rich and colorful dwell in clear something purchased several pages of the history books are going to have to be re-written these fines give an impression of daily life of the life of priests but also of soldiers of the inhabitants of this city and of the traders what kind of vessels and pots do they cook him beside maxim were imported for very rich people others were made locally Filipino serve on this we have Egyptian objects with Greek inscriptions like we have Greek objects with hieroglyphs but do this all gives us an amazing picture of how Greek and Egyptian cultures mix tier-i caricatures this small or lamp for example perfectly preserved with soot still sticking to the spout it was made by Egyptians but its shape is inspired by lamps customary in Athens it is absolutely an archaeologists dream a site that is untouched where everything is pretty well preserved and is all available all you have to do is to bring in the skills the techniques the manpower and there is no end to what you can learn how rich was Heraklion just seven kilometers from the coast they bring up fantastic gold artifacts from the sand Jewellery adorned with animal motifs like this lions head earring clearly very fashionable in ancient Egypt when it was under the sway of Greece even so these gold artifacts do provide important clues and that includes the city's topography it's probable that most of the gold was an offering thrown into the sea in honor of the gods in some places there are large amounts evidence that there might have been a holy site there and again Gaudio is able to redraw the map of the ancient city with more precision if you see more altar rooms were found like this temple over here in the Northeast it's a small temple made of limestone bricks it's a very old one dedicated to the God of Sciences he is a very beautiful and well-preserved temple the fact that all these temples exist is very important because it seems that her ackley and kept its religious significance even when Alexander the Great moved most trade from Heraklion to Alexandria the new capital in 331 BC Alexander the Great established the new port of Alexandria the city quickly gained in importance while Heraklion significance is a trading port dwindled that is well known and well documented but the many gold artifacts around the temple date from the period after the founding of Alexandria which means that the old port remained an important religious site it's named Heraklion is proven by the find in the temple but what about the mysterious city of torez which is also mentioned in the ancient texts from the very beginning from Goryeo has wanted to answer this question the divers find a strange black granite block in the murky water at this point jean-claude doesn't know that this find will go down in history at first glance it's easy to see that the stone is incredibly well-preserved even though it must have been in the seat for some 2,500 years a short time later the hieroglyphs are unscrambled it's text decree by Pharaoh nectar banister first foreign trading ships will have to pay 10% tax on all their goods but the real sensation is a note about the location of the Stevie dedicado sit still the discovery of this daily solves a two thousand year old mystery inscribed on his steely are the words the Pharaoh orders that this steely be erected in the town of Tana cetera she did this come Savior and since we know that we're in Heraklion this steely provided us with ultimate proof that Heraklion and Toni's a one in the same city so we found out the name of the city the old name and the name from the Ptolemaic era of course that was fantastic it comes up city digs Hodnett so the legendary port is really just one town but with two names Taurus was the Egyptian name and the Greeks called it Heraklion a simple explanation carved in stone that solves a mystery thousands of years old now the team knows exactly which town it's diving in and using the many finds frog audio is able to create a lively and uniquely detailed picture of the old city Heraklion tonus has resurfaced user also call tompa senpai we have this large central temple this smaller temple the docks and the wrecks the canal but cities also have residential neighborhoods so where are they that effect there are only indications of them thanks to missing artifacts in certain zones why because these houses were built of mud and papyrus is curious these materials have disappeared what's left just a few rough pots everyday objects and you can see that these residential areas stretched around the temple a long way so we now have a very good impression of this large port called Heraklion pisces the second video we understand how the city worked well we understand how the boats access the docks from the Nile via the canals module and we know about these various canals which connected the docks with an aisle and the scenes we can reconstruct life in the city yeah paviva said so this was Heraklion Taurus a place that had been all but wiped from human memory from Gaudio brought this legend back to life a city mentioned in very few texts and now we know how the citizens of this city traded and whom they traded with and what their ships actually look like how the temple was built the kind of monuments that they erected to their kings and the sacrifices they made to their gods what kind of jewelry people wore in what mirrors they looked into what kind of vessels they had and what kind of ladles they used but why did her at Leon sink beneath the sea was a slow process or a sudden natural catastrophe the Offutt on a twig syndicate we discovered that there are several reasons why the city sank into the sea to the world on the one hand the ground in this region of the eastern Mediterranean was slowly sinking about 10 centimeters a century levy Jacquie on eraklyon was built on sandy ground containing lots of water and at some point everything built on this soil the main temple and everything else suddenly subsided several meters later cool defuse on it an earthquake or tsunami in the seventh century must have been the final blow for this city none of the finds date from any later from Gaudio and his team have been studying the lost city for more than 15 years are there still secrets to uncover just an example yes he did a complicated you take the city of Pompeii which was found in the 18th century the study of Pompeii is far from over people be you why did Pompeii was a resort very interesting but it didn't have any particular religious or economic significance to me keen everybody can't function I could make me religious but in Heraklion we're at the door of Egypt we're in the city to which Kings came to be sanctified by the chief god Amun get AB I do be bad um this place is twice or even three times the size of Pompeii and it's submerged water or won't do that offer us a devotee yearly to explore all that today I would need two or three centuries the twice accurate the depth I think what we know about correctly on today is just a fraction of what we'll find out over the coming decades and even centuries femur discs also uh we're still at the very beginning of our search on it would be delicious

Channel: undefined

Views: 919,571

Rating: 4.764317 out of 5

Keywords: Ocean, Found, Egypt, History, Documentary (TV Genre)

Id: 19Iea0kn31I

Length: 41min 53sec (2513 seconds)

Published: Fri May 09 2014