27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001
Issue No.553
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 27 Sep. - 3 Oct. 2001 Issue No.553 |
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Next stop, Hercules' lost city
Have you ever entertained fantasies of being Indiana Jones or Jacques Cousteau, or perhaps an amalgamation of both? Imagine swimming a few metres beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea among mini-Sphinx-like statues of Cleopatra, amidst schools of fish. If you're the sort who is intrigued by underwater archaeology you may be entertained -- and perhaps enlightened -- by the Franck Goddio Society's Web site.
Filled with videos, high resolution photos, maps and short illustrated articles, this site would appeal to anyone interested in one of the newer frontiers of archaeological exploration in Egypt. And as long as plans for an underwater museum remain in limbo, the site's underwater footage is as close as most of us will come to frolicking with the fish amongst ancient statues of two of Egypt's "lost cities."
Headed by Frenchman Franck Goddio, this organisation, which is involved in research, exploration and excavation of underwater archaeological sites around the world, was in the news in June due to its cooperation in excavations off the coast of Abu Qir, just east of Alexandria, to explore the "lost city of Heracleion." No stranger to Egypt's shores, Goddio previously worked with the Egyptian Department of Antiquities to excavate the site near the Alexandria port where the so-called royal quarters were thoroughly explored two years ago.
With the exploration of the royal quarters by the Egyptian-French team, there was much talk and excitement about the possibility of establishing an underwater museum off the coast near the fort of Qait Bey in Alexandria's eastern port. However, it seems unlikely that such plans will see the light of day any time soon. Even private diving expeditions can be non- starters, as Monaco's Prince Albert discovered when his visit to the royal quarters was postponed at the 11th hour. But before cynics leap to conclusions about bureaucratic stalling by the Egyptian state or UNESCO, the protection of the site and visitors would seem to offer serious arguments for careful consideration of such a project. Any edifice would have to withstand the choppy seas, considered inhospitable to divers for all but the spring and part of the summer, and the run-off from Egypt's thriving second city cannot be good for prospective visitors, or a museum. Although many objects have been hauled out of the sea, they have not made it to the display halls of Egypt's museums, being confined instead to the research labs. And some have even been returned to the seabed where they were successfully preserved for almost 12 centuries. In the meantime, like Mediterranean royalty, the general public will have to be content with virtual visits.
For archaeology and ancient world neophytes like myself, you may be tempted to go directly to the videos narrated by Goddio giving you the viewpoint of a person swimming up to a statue, or one of the lucky few invited to watch stelae being pulled out of the water by a crane from the deck of a nearby yacht.
Against a background of bands of various shades of blue which melt into each other with yellow and orange bands at the top of the screen -- reminiscent of some sort of Curaçao- based cocktail that surely would be garnished with a little umbrella -- it's easy to navigate your way to the videos of the Egyptian discoveries that are marked with great big photos titled "Abu Qir 2001, the lost city of Heracleion."
Widely believed to have sunk beneath the Mediterranean Sea during the mid-8th century, Heracleion was said to have been established during the 6th century AD at the mouth of the Canopus branch of the Nile -- long since dried up. What caused the once-thriving port city to disappear remains a mystery (see article on this page). Goddio's site seems to accept the theory that posits a cataclysmic earthquake, one which seems more likely than the competing flood theory, which it does not even mention.
This is a light site with general, rather than specialist appeal. Goddio drops little tidbits about Herodotus's chronicle of the city and how the discoveries prove that Heracleion, named after the mighty Greek hero Hercules, actually existed. Short articles tease the reader with soupçons of information about the significance of the finds. For example, a stela records a tax decree issued in the 4th century AD, long after the city's heyday had come to an end and it had been overshadowed by Alexandria. Concerning the discoveries off Alexandria's eastern port, the Cleopatra statues tell archaeologists that a temple once stood at the site. Maps for each find, disappointingly, reveal the geographical location of the excavations rather than the sites themselves. Alas, Monsieur Goddio and co. exhibit the financially savvy characteristic of newer Web sites: copying text or photos is impossible. Photos may be purchased from the site and the public is invited to become a member (for a nominal fee), which entitles them to newsletters, posters and other perks. Books, posters and videos are also for sale through links to the site.
While my interest was piqued by the entertainment factor of the videos, this site does disappoint in failing to take up the opportunity of making highly technical and specialist information digestible to the general public. And although press reports elsewhere tell of intensive work plans to excavate a site almost one kilometre square, sadly there are no updates on findings subsequent to June 2001. To be fair, though, perhaps that's what paying visitors are entitled to. Another drawback, and perhaps this relates to the foregoing point of the superficiality of the information provided, is that the site fails to mention those who have visited the sites and recorded information from their visits. The 19th century was a particularly active period of such exploration and documentation, but one might assume from this site that until the recent excavations no one had been moved to go check out the veracity of Herodotus's writings. Because the Abu Qir site, for instance, currently lies a mere six to seven metres beneath the water's surface, albeit a few kilometres away from shore, fishermen at least would have probably noticed some ruins, and such depths are easily reachable to divers without air tanks. Perhaps such tales are more the purview of historians. Nonetheless, this site offers the Web surfer the opportunity to adopt the viewpoint of swashbuckling archaeologists and go boldly where few men have gone before.
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