Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 9 -15 November 2000 Issue No.507
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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What lies beneath

By Jill Kamil

The ancient Egyptian city of Canopus was so important a Mediterranean city that Alexander the Great went there straight from Memphis before heading west along the coast to found the city of Alexandria. Classical writers and travellers loved to chronicle the high life and sinful pleasures of ancient Canopus, and my interest about the legendary city was further piqued when I saw the magnificent mosaics of Nile scenes that originally decorated the villa of a wealthy Roman citizen in Italy.

But Canopus, along with other cities on the stretch of coast where five branches of the Nile once met the Mediterranean sea, has long since been lost -- drowned by seismic activity coupled with a neglect of sea defences. When I first visited the area it needed a far stretch of the imagination to visualise life there in its heyday. Tidal waves had entered the shallow waters and flooded any ruins and a possible rise in sea level could also have contributed to their loss. But a visit to the area was merely a symbolic one anyhow, as there would have been nothing to see even if the waters had not risen. My mentor and guide, who had accompanied me there, told me that the ancient cities of Canopus, Herakleon and Menouthis had totally disappeared by the ninth century. They were as surely gone as the lost island of Atlantis.

At least that's what we thought. But we were wrong. These cities are not the stuff of legend. Scholars long dreamed of finding their remains and in June, with the aid of modern scanning techniques, archaeologists finally did so. Frank Goddio, president of the European Institute of Marine Archaeology, and a team of underwater archaeologists, uncovered the ruins of the three cities lying some 10 to 15 metres beneath the Abu Qir Bay, where British forces trounced the French fleet in the famous "Battle of the Nile". The archaeological team came upon incredible treasures lying amidst cities frozen in time. Here, glimmering in the rippled water was a beautiful royal head, carved in granite, that may have adorned the courtyard of a palace. There, a headless granite statue recognisable as the goddess Isis. Beyond, a white marble head of the god Serapis, not as the Apis bull, but as a robust Greek god with curly hair and beard. The team swam among columns, a headless sphinx, various vessels and what is surely the most significant, if not the most impressive of the objects littering the sea bed: a large fragment of inscribed granite that proved to be a missing section of the Naos (shrine) of the Decades.

According to Greek mythology, Canopus was named after a Greek navigator who had accompanied the Greek king Menelaus on his return from the Trojan War. The ship was wrecked in the place now known as Abu Qir and he and his men sought refuge there. Canopus, the navigator, unfortunately died after being bitten by a poisonous snake. He was buried there and the area later took his name. That, at least, is one story about the origin of the name. Another, more plausible explanation, is that the town was named after Canup, an ancient deity associated with Osiris. In Alexandria's Graeco-Roman museum, there are two statues of an anonymous deity. The God was only identified because he is also represented in pottery drawings on which the name Canup is inscribed.

Hitting the motherload: Underwater archaeologists working near Abu Qir Bay on the northern coast unearth remains of the lost cities of Canopus, Herekleon and Menouthis earlier this year photos: Hussein Fathi

The city of Canopus was a point of entry to Egypt even as far back as the sixth century b.c., when Greek traders established an inland port at Naucratis. It was not feasible to establish it on the coast because, unlike Alexandria, it was not protected by offshore islands. Nile silt, along with the prevailing winds, constantly and repeatedly blocked up the shoreline during low floods. It was this branch of the Nile through which the Greek traveller and historian Herodotus sailed on his visit to Egypt; the one which Ptolemy the geographer called "the great river" to distinguish it from the other branches at Rosetta and Damietta; and it was the outlet that Strabo, the first-century Roman historian, commented was the only one left open -- all the others were closed in order to set up a monopoly on trade.

After the founding of Alexandria, the number of vessels sailing to Naucratis fell, but Canopus and the cities of Herakleon and Menouthis were linked by a canal that ran from the Canopic branch of the Nile to Alexandria -- it was through this channel that Alexandria received fresh water. Canopus thus remained a recreational city, a place where the elite of Alexandria came to play. Romans in search of a holiday made their way to Egypt from across the Mediterranean, not with the aim of visiting Alexandria, but Canopus. It was a tourist resort reputed to have the most beautiful and licentious of women in the world. It was no destination for sand, sea and sport, but for sun, scandal and sex.

The mosaic in Italy's Museo Prenestino, which originally formed part of a beautiful Roman palace, shows various boats on a tributary of the Nile. Secular and religious buildings line the banks. Scholars believe it is a scene that characterised the Delta during the annual flood when, according to Strabo, "the whole country (meaning the Delta) becomes a lake." Some of the boats are filled with revellers and the banks are bordered by beautiful walled gardens. But behind the walls, within the trellised porticos, one can catch a glimpse of sensual scenes -- perhaps not the orgies decried by the churches of Saint Cyr and Saint John at Menouthis, but delightfully promiscuous romps nevertheless. In the lower section is a wide canal with boats carrying travellers between Canopus and Alexandria, passing taverns with rowdy revellers.

Strabo described Canopus as charming and sensual with a reputation for women "unrestrained" and "without modesty". It was a playground for the rich. Those who could afford to do so visited from all parts of the Hellenistic world. They came for health, to consult oracles, or go to temple for "sleep cures" and revelatory dreams. But rowdy tales by moralising historians only whet the curiosity of scholars eager to reconstruct the life of the town. Did women use the favourite Egyptian fragrances to woo their lovers? Did traders sell souvenirs, sweets and charms to the tourists? Did the whole area become a ghost town at summer's end, when partygoers withdrew and the more conservative local population took over. Did they turn to the churches of Saint Cyr and Saint John to confess their sins and ask forgiveness?

Canopus had its temples, one in honour of Serapis. There were markets and industrial areas. Perhaps this was where the huge granite Naos of the Decades was made, fragments of which were later taken to the Louvre and to Alexandria's Graeco-Roman Museum. The inscribed granite slab dates to the fifth century b.c. and has intrigued generations of scholars, as it is the oldest known chronicle of the origins of astrology that echoes today's calendar.

Discovery of the lost cities reveals what has been apparent in many other heavily-populated areas of Egypt: the contrast between a multi-cultural community living alongside a conservative local population -- the contrast between poverty and plenty. How many pagans had converted to Christianity by the fifth century? Constantine the Great declared Christianity to be the religion of the empire in 313, and yet we hear complaints from the Christian community in this Mediterranean resort of a terrible female demon who appeared in the form of a ravishing beauty. Monks reputedly raided a certain house and discovered a secret walled chamber that contained a shrine, images of gods and fresh blood dripping from sacrifices. Anxious to rid the city of pagan idols, they ordered them removed. So numerous were they that 20 camels were required to carry them away. When the last evidence of pagan worship was removed, the building was burned, and a church was built on the site of the house of ill repute. It became famous as a healing centre, a place for treatment of the sick, where people could take a "sleep cure", in which saintly personages would bless and protect them.

Watching the waters of the Mediterranean, I try to envision the cities beneath the water. I wonder whether the buildings were abandoned slowly, as the water stole up and covered the lowland. Did the people have time to carry away their treasured possessions and take up residence elsewhere? Or was the drowning of these cities some 1,300 years ago the result of a single earthquake followed by a tidal wave of such proportions that, like the legendary Atlantis, all was lost in a single dramatic moment leaving nothing more than the name of Father Cyr -- today's Abu Qir Bay? What more remains to be found, interpreted, and learned about the ancient cities of Canopus, Herakleon and Menouthis? For the historian, archaeologist or even the curious traveller, there is magic buried beyond the bay, and only time will tell if the mystery will ever be solved.

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