10 July 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Egypt’s Lost city “Thonis-Heracleion”

Thonis-Heracleion (Egyptian and Greek names of the city) is a port city lost between myth and reality until 1999.

Few people now have heard of Thonis-Heracleion, as opposed to Babylon, Pompeii, Truva, or the legendary Atlantis. Indeed, until recent discoveries, it was possible that the waves of the Mediterranean would condemn not only the city’s physical ruins but also its memory, to history.

The city was presumably established in the 8th century BC, experienced several natural disasters, and eventually sank completely under the waters of the Mediterranean in the 8th century AD.

Most historians thought Thonis-Heracleion were two different conurbations, both of which were located on the modern Egyptian mainland, until 1933 when an RAF captain flying over Abu Qir saw ruins in the sea.

The ruins submerged in the sea were located and explored by the French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio in 1999, after a five-year search.

Thonis-Heracleion founded approximately 2,700 years ago on the location of present-day Abu Qir bay, 15 miles north-east of Alexandria, preceded its better-known neighbor as the region’s major emporium (trading port) by several centuries and was a center for international commerce.

This stele reveals that Thonis (Egyptian) and Heracleion (Greek) were the same city. Photograph: Christoph Gerigk/Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation
This stele reveals that Thonis (Egyptian) and Heracleion (Greek) were the same city. Photograph: Christoph Gerigk/Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation

The city, crisscrossed by canals and populated with harbors, wharves, temples, and tower-houses – all linked together by a network of ferries, bridges, and pontoons — controlled the majority of the nautical commerce entering Egypt from the Mediterranean. Goods would be inspected and taxed at the customs administration center before being transported further inland, either to Naukratis – another trading port nearly 50 miles up the Nile – or via the Western Lake, which was connected by a water channel to the nearby town of Canopus and provided access to many other parts of the country.

Archaeologists have so far only discovered a fraction of the city. Photograph: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation
Archaeologists have so far only discovered a fraction of the city. Photograph: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation

Thonis-Heracleion had a huge temple dedicated to Khonsou, son of Amun and known as Herakles to the Greeks. Amun worship grew increasingly popular later on. During the sixth and fourth centuries BC, when the city was at its peak, a huge temple dedicated to Amun-Gereb, the Egyptians’ supreme god of the period, stood in the heart of the city.

Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus was a city described by many great historians of antiquity, from Herodotus to Strabo and Diodorus.

The 5.4 metres tall statue of the god Hapy.
The 5.4 metres tall statue of the god Hapy. Photograph: Christoph Gerigk/Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation

During the second century, BC Alexandria superseded Thonis (Heracleion) as Egypt’s primary port. According to the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC), a magnificent temple was constructed where the famed hero Herakles first set foot in Egypt. He also mentions Helen’s journey to Heracleion before the Trojan War with her lover Paris. More than four centuries after Herodotus’ journey to Egypt, the geographer Strabo noted that the city of Heracleion, which held the temple of Herakles, is located directly east of Canopus at the entrance of the Canopic branch of the Nile.

Thonis-Heracleion’s of pomp and glory was waning by the second century BC. Along the coast, the new metropolis of Alexandria was quickly establishing itself as Egypt’s foremost port, while the hybrid foundation of land and sea upon which Thonis-Heracleion was constructed was beginning to seem less secure. The city was destroyed not by a single natural calamity — an earthquake, tsunami, increasing sea levels, or subsidence – but by a mixture of them all.

The excavated items depict the city’s beauty and splendor, the magnificence of their enormous temples, and the richness of historic evidence: colossal sculptures, inscriptions, and architectural components, jewelry and coins, ritual goods, and ceramics – a civilization trapped in time.

The most striking artifact among the city finds is undoubtedly the 5.4-meter-high statue of the god Hapy.

The underwater archaeological excavations at Thonis-Heracleion are still underway. Only 5% of the city, according to Franck Goddio, has been uncovered.

Related Articles

A Pagan cemetery belongs to the Late Roman Empire period in Istanbul

12 June 2022

12 June 2022

During the restoration of the ancient Sheikh Suleiman Mosque, which was restored as part of the Med-Art Education Project by...

Venice of the Pacific: The mysterious Micronesian ruins of Nan Madol

12 July 2022

12 July 2022

Sometimes art and architecture challenge our perceptions of what was formerly thought to be feasible and what our forefathers were...

Seven Roman altars multicolored in the Great Northern Museum

12 November 2021

12 November 2021

We know that the ancient world is now very colorful. But these colors weren’t just limited to robes and other...

Archaeologists have discovered 85 ancient tombs, a watchtower, and a temple site in Egypt’s Gabal al-Haridi region

5 May 2022

5 May 2022

The Egyptian archaeological mission discovered 85 tombs, a watchtower, and a temple site in the Gabal al-Haridi area of Sohag,...

The World’s oldest and first swords ever discovered

11 March 2023

11 March 2023

The 5,000-year-old swords found 43 years ago during the excavations in the old mud-brick palace structure in Malatya Arslantepe Mound...

A New Study: The Great Sphinx of Giza may have been blown into shape by the wind

1 November 2023

1 November 2023

The theory, occasionally raised by others, that the Great Sphinx of Giza may have been a lion-shaped natural landform that...

3,500-Year-Old Tomb of King Thutmose II Discovered: The First Royal Burial Unearthed Since King Tutankhamun

19 February 2025

19 February 2025

Egyptian officials have announced a groundbreaking discovery: the long-lost tomb of King Thutmose II, marking the last of the royal...

Life continues in Iran’s 12,000-year-old settlement “Meymand village”

8 February 2022

8 February 2022

At the south-eastern Iranian province of Kerman near Shahr-Babak city, there is a village dating back to the Stone Age....

Who Are The Sea Peoples?

13 February 2021

13 February 2021

Who are the Sea Peoples, which are seen as the beginning of the dark age, and where did they come...

Egypt unearths ancient quarters of mining leader in the Sinai Peninsula during the Middle Kingdom

19 January 2022

19 January 2022

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced recently that an Egyptian archaeological mission working in Wadi Al-Nasab in South...

Brief history and 9 unknowns of Hagia Sophia

11 August 2021

11 August 2021

The Great Church was the name given to Hagia Sophia when it was initially constructed (Megale Ekklesia). However, the Church...

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of what may be one of the four lost Ancient Egyptian “Sun Temples”

31 July 2022

31 July 2022

A Polish and Italian archaeological mission, while conducting an excavation in the Abusir necropolis near Saqqara in Egypt, unearthed the...

Archaeologists find sunken ancient Egyptian warship under Abu Qir Bay

26 July 2021

26 July 2021

According to a press release by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Egyptian French archaeological mission of the...

Archaeologists unearths Unique Tomb of 6th Century BC Egyptian Commander at the archaeological area of ​​Abu Sir

24 July 2022

24 July 2022

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on July 15 that a team of Czech archaeologists, while excavating near the Giza...

Unsolvable Megalithic Mystery of ancient Greek “Dragon Houses”

8 January 2025

8 January 2025

The Dragon Houses of Euboea, which probably dates to the Preclassical period of ancient Greece, are one of the historical...