A sunken red granite tower, part
of a pylon of the Isis temple is loaded on a
truck after being extracted out of the
Mediterranean Sea off the archaeological eastern
harbor of Alexandria, Egypt Thursday, Dec. 17,
2009. Egyptian archeologists have lifted a major
artifact out of the Mediterranean Sea in an
elaborate effort to highlight ancient treasures
buried under water off the harbor in Alexandria.
It is intended to be the centerpiece of a
planned underwater museum Egypt hopes will draw
tourists to its northern coast, often
overshadowed by hotspots such as Luxor, the Giza
pyramids and Red Sea beaches. Archaeologists on
Thursday hoisted a 9-ton temple pylon from the
waters of the Mediterranean that was part of the
palace complex of the fabled Cleopatra before it
became submerged for centuries in the harbor of
Alexandria. The pylon, which once stood at the
entrance to a temple of Isis, is to be the
centerpiece of an ambitious underwater museum
planned by Egypt to showcase the sunken city,
believed to have been toppled into the sea by
earthquakes in the 4th century. Divers and
underwater archaeologists used a giant crane and
ropes to lift the 9-ton, 7.4-foot-tall pylon,
covered with muck and seaweed, out of the murky
waters. It was deposited ashore as Egypt's top
archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, and other officials
watched. The pylon was part of a sprawling
palace from which the Ptolemaic dynasty ruled
Egypt and where 1st Century B.C. Queen Cleopatra
wooed the Roman general Marc Antony before they
both committed suicide after their defeat by
Augustus Caesar. The temple dedicated to Isis, a
pharaonic goddess of fertility and magic, is at
least 2,050 years old, but archaeologists
believe it's likely much older. The pylon was
cut from a single slab of red granite quarried
in Aswan, some 700 miles (more than 1,100
kilometers) to the south, officials said. "The
cult of Isis was so powerful, it's no wonder
Cleopatra chose to make her living quarters next
to the temple," said coastal geoarchaeologist
Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian's
National Museum of Natural History. Egyptian
authorities hope that eventually the pylon will
become a part of the underwater museum, an
ambitious attempt to draw tourists to the
country's northern coast, often overshadowed by
the grand pharaonic temples of Luxor in the
south, the Giza pyramids outside Cairo and the
beaches of the Red Sea. They are hoping the
allure of Alexandria, founded in 331 B.C. by
Alexander the Great, can also be a draw.
Cleopatra's palace and other buildings and
monuments now lie strewn on the seabed in the
harbor of Alexandria, the second largest city of
Egypt. Since 1994, archaeologists have been
exploring the ruins, one of the richest
underwater excavations in the Mediterranean,
with some 6,000 artifacts. Another 20,000
objects are scattered off other parts of
Alexandria's coast, said Ibrahim Darwish, head
of the city's underwater archaeology department. |