Vedic Cities Originally?

June 4, 2000

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|reuters,00.html

Ancient Cities Reported Found Under Sea Off Egypt

June 3, 2000 10:57 am EST

By Reim Bashir

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) - Archaeologists on Saturday showed off relics

retrieved from the nearly complete ruins of ancient cities they said they

had

discovered on the seabed off the Egyptian coast.

The joint French and Egyptian team said the cities of Menouthif and

Herakleion, submerged more than 1,000 years ago, lay in five to 10 meters

(15-30 feet) of water about six km (3.75 miles) off the Mediterranean city

of

Alexandria.

"We are very excited because we are used to finding the remains of a tomb, a

church or a mosque, but this time we are finding complete cities -- cities

that were heard about from the classical writings," said Gaballah Ali

Gaballah, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

"Most probably they disappeared because of seismic causes," said Franck

Goddio, head of the Paris-based European Institute of Marine Archaeology.

A rise in the Mediterranean sea level and sudden submersion caused by

earthquake, or climate changes, could explain the annihilation of the

cities,

he said.

The cities were legendary in antiquity for their wealth and arts as well as

their many temples dedicated to the gods Serapis, Isis and Osiris.

An intricately carved 1.5-meter (five-foot) black granite statue of Isis was

shown to the media after being raised from the seabed.

Also discovered during two years of undersea exploration were the head of a

pharaonic statue of a sphinx, jewelry and gold coins dating from the

Byzantine and Islamic eras.

The archaeologists said the coins showed the region had not been submerged

until the eighth century, although the cities had been founded many hundreds

of years earlier.

The archaeologists said they had also identified two other submerged cities

in the same area, Canopus and Thonis, but had not yet retrieved relics from

them.

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