CAIRO — The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has shared the discovery of the wreck of a warship from the Ptolemaic era and the remains of a Greek funerary area dating back to the beginning of the fourth century BC, in the sunken city of Heracleion in Alexandria's Abu Qir Bay. 

Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt Mustafa Waziri said in a July 19 statement, “The ship was moored in the canal that flowed along the upper side of the Temple of Amun. It sank after being hit by huge blocks falling from the temple of Amun, which collapsed due to a cataclysmic earthquake that occurred in the second century BC. The falling stone blocks pinned the ship down under the deep channel.” 

Ehab Fahmy, head of the underwater archaeology department at the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Al-Monitor the Egyptian-French archaeological mission of the European Institute for Underwater Archeology (IEASM) has been working in the city of Heracleion for a long time. “A few days ago, the mission found the warship wreck under around five meters of mud at the seabed.” 

Fahmy stressed the importance of this discovery, noting that finds of this type of ship are rare, with only one previous discovery dating to the same era. “This discovery may give us better information about that time period. The shipwreck was built using a mixture of the Egyptian and Greek methods. It was navigable in the Nile and the seas alike.”