Quest for Queen Cleopatra’s misplaced tomb reveals a sunken historic Egyptian harbor

Cairo — Archaeologists say they’ve found proof of an historic, long-submerged Mediterranean port that was linked to the Taposiris Magna Temple close to Egypt’s northern coastal metropolis of Alexandria. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities introduced the invention final week, increasing on what’s identified in regards to the temple complicated about 30 miles west of Alexandria that dates to the Ptolemaic interval, greater than 2,000 years in the past.

The Egyptian-Dominican archaeological mission, led by Dr. Kathleen Martinez from the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Ureña, together with Dr. Robert Ballard, who positioned the Titanic shipwreck in 1985, has been conducting geological and archaeological surveys of the coastal space surrounding the temple.

Working in collaboration with Dr. Larry Mayer, from the College of New Hampshire, and the Egyptian Navy Hydrographic Division (ENHD) and the Egyptian Division of Underwater Antiquities, it was this crew that uncovered the proof of an historic submerged port.

Martinez informed CBS Information that after mapping the seabed with state-of-the-art sonar applied sciences, after which utilizing software program to simulate pre-submersion situations, the crew revealed a submerged historic shoreline about 2.5 miles from the current coast, together with a web site with an previous inside harbor that will have been protected by coral reefs.

Their analysis additionally revealed an extension of a tunnel linking the temple, the stays of that are about half of a mile from the present shoreline, to the previous port. The tunnel prolonged to an space often known as “Salam 5,” the place divers discovered basalt base fragments just like these from statues contained in the sanctuary.

The crew additionally discovered a number of stone and steel anchors of assorted styles and sizes scattered close to the reef, together with quite a few damaged amphorae that have been recovered from contained in the sunken harbor, all relationship to the Ptolemaic interval.

Martinez informed CBS Information that, together with the invention of seven shafts linked to an underground passage close to the sanctuary of Taposiris Magna, linked with different subsurface constructions and a few up to date buildings in entrance of the sanctuary, the findings “strongly point out that Taposiris Magna functioned as an energetic maritime zone with at the very least an inside harbor in antiquity.”

“The event of peripheral harbors, in the direction of the decongestion of the central one in Alexandria, could be a matter of necessity. Taposiris Magna could be a part of the community of peripheral harbor cities, offering entry to Egypt from the west, and aiding within the distribution of Egyptian merchandise throughout the Mediterranean,” she mentioned.

As no historic texts consult with a harbor at Taposiris Magna, the outcomes of the analysis characterize a big contribution of recent information, throwing open a wholly new chapter within the historical past of the location, Martinez mentioned.

The hunt for Cleopatra’s tomb

However whereas discovering the port is vital, she’s on the lookout for one thing else. Like many different archaeologists, Martinez desires to search out the tomb of Egypt’s final queen, Cleopatra VII, who dominated from about 51 B.C. – 30 B.C. 

Whereas lots of her contemporaries within the discipline have lengthy targeted their hunt for Cleopatra’s tomb among the many ruins of Alexandria’s Royal Quarters, Martinez has educated her sights for the final 20 years on Taposiris Magna.

“I devoted 10 years earlier to that to finding out Cleopatra’s life and loss of life,” mentioned Martinez.

The traditional queen allied herself with Roman normal Mark Antony after Julius Caesar’s loss of life, to collectively face Caesar’s inheritor Octavian (or Octavius). 

Once they have been defeated on the Battle of Actium, they fled to Egypt. Octavius pursued them, and in 30 B.C. they each dedicated suicide individually, however they’re believed by many historians to have been buried collectively in Alexandria.

Martinez, nevertheless, believes the tomb is definitely in Taposiris Magna, about 30 miles additional southwest down Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. She considers it “the proper remaining resting place for Queen Cleopatra.” 

When she began the challenge, Martinez introduced her speculation to Egyptian officers. 

“After all, they did not consider me,” she informed CBS Information. 

She mentioned she predicted they’d discover a necropolis on the web site, possible from the time of Cleopatra. 

“We did,” she informed CBS Information. “We have now already found and excavated 21 catacombs. We have now a projection that at the very least we’ve 20 or 25 extra…  We have now greater than 600 human stays and greater than 30 mummies… And we’ll uncover the tomb [of Cleopatra].”

There are archeologists who disagree with Martinez and stand by the speculation that Cleopatra’s tomb is within the Royal Quarters, within the heart of historic Alexandria. However she’s unmoved.

“It is not there, as a result of the Romans hated Queen Cleopatra. And so they needed desperately to take her to Rome and parade her,” Martinez informed CBS Information. “Octavius would have completed something to carry Cleopatra to Rome and parade her in chains, and possibly give her essentially the most horrible loss of life that the Romans may inflict.”  

“However Cleopatra did not need to go to Rome, and she or he tried to discover a solution to escape from that future and she or he needed to remain in Egypt.”

Martinez mentioned the brand new Roman emperor may have taken her alive, or introduced her stays to Rome, so she wanted to safe a location the place her stays couldn’t be simply found, which she believes would have made the Royal Quarters a impossible selection.

Taposiris Magna was constructed as a temple devoted to the goddess Isis, and Cleopatra, Martinez mentioned, “introduced herself all the time, as the brand new Isis.”

She defined that the situation had a powerful non secular context, and crucially, it was not below the management of the Romans on the time, in contrast to the Royal Quarters.

“She outsmarted the Romans,” mentioned Martinez.

Martinez informed CBS Information that the crew will proceed their exploration of the harbor web site in a couple of week, and it’s set to go on for at the very least one other two months.

“That is the primary time that we will really excavate underwater. It will be very thrilling,” she mentioned, including that no one is thought to have ever dived on the web site earlier than. “We do not know what we will uncover there as a result of that is the start of the search.”

“It is a thriller. There was little or no details about this place,” she mentioned. “The positioning itself typically leads you in a sure route.” 

For 2 millennia, Cleopatra has been profitable in hiding the situation of her stays, not simply from the Romans, however from archaeologists.

Martinez has no hangups about dedicating herself to the search for Cleopatra for practically three many years.

“Properly, it is a 2,000-year-old puzzle, and you might be placing the items collectively,”  she informed CBS Information, including that she stays “100% satisfied that it is a matter of time” earlier than her work lastly pays off.