1.200 years ago the ancient Egyptian city of Heraklion has disappeared in the waters of the Mediterranean. Founded around 8-7th century BC, long before the founding of Alexandria in 331 BC, the City served as the main port for smuggling in Egypt all supplies coming from the Greek world. Prior to its opening in 2000 the archaeologist Frank Goddio and IEASM (European Institute of underwater archaeology), no mention of Tonise-Heraklion were found (the city was known to the Greeks as the Tonys). His name was erased from the memory of mankind, saved only in the ancient classical texts and inscriptions found by archaeologists.
With unique isledovatel′skim approach, using sophisticated technical equipment, Franck Goddio and his team from IEASM were able to determine the location, display and dig out of Tonys-Gerklion, which is 4 km from today’s coastline, approximately 50 metres under water. The city covers an area of 11 to 15 kilometers in the western part of the Bay of Abukir.
The finds so far include the remains of 64 ships on the sea bottom, gold coins and scales, made of bronze and stone, 5-meter giant statues along with hundreds of smaller statues of minor gods, slabs of stone with inscriptions in ancient Greek and ancient Egyptian, dozens of small sarcophagi, which most likely contained the mummified animals, as well as more than 700 ancient ship anchors.
Study suggests that the town was flooded as a result of geological and natural disasters. Slow movement of soil affect this part of the South-Eastern Mediterranean basin. Rising sea levels also led to significant flooding. IEASM conducted geological observations, detecting the seismic effects of underground layers.
Analysis of various factors in these places also offers soil liquefaction. These localized phenomena can be initiated by a large pressure on soil with a high content of clay and water. Pressure from large buildings, combined with overloading due to unusually high tidal wave can substantially compress the soil and cause the popping of water contained in the structure of the clay. Clay quickly loses volume, which creates a sudden demotion. Another version of the causes of the flooding could also become an earthquake. These factors, together or independently, possibly caused withdrawal of Heraklion in the depths of the sea.
