The discovery of a sunken port off the coast of Egypt may provide a puzzle piece in the longstanding search for Cleopatra’s misplaced tomb and glimpses into the nation’s ancient maritime exercise, in keeping with researchers.
A staff of underwater archaeologists, together with National Geographic Explorer Kathleen Martínez and National Geographic Explorer-at-Large Bob Ballard, uncovered rows of towering constructions that may have been columns, reaching over 20 ft (6 meters) excessive, throughout the Mediterranean Sea. The researchers additionally discovered proof of polished stone flooring, cemented blocks, ship anchors and tall storage jars referred to as amphorae — all dated to the time of Cleopatra.
The staff discovered the port after tracing a beforehand unearthed tunnel spanning 4,281 ft (1,305 meters) that appeared to hyperlink the positioning of the ancient temple of Taposiris Magna, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Alexandria, to the ocean.
Martínez believes Taposiris Magna is a key location in relation to Cleopatra’s burial, though many archaeologists disagree together with her speculation.
The findings have been introduced on September 18 by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, printed by National Geographic and aired in its documentary referred to as “Cleopatra’s Final Secret,” now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years. I’ve been underwater. I’ve never seen anything like this. This clearly looks like it’s man-made,” stated Ballard of the underwater constructions in the documentary. The famend oceanographer, a senior scientist emeritus in utilized ocean physics and engineering on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, discovered the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985.
As a new three-month excavation begins on the temple and underwater website, Martínez, a prison lawyer from the Dominican Republic who has turned to diplomacy and archaeology, believes the discover is a promising subsequent step in her 20-year search for the tomb of Queen Cleopatra VII.
“The discovery of the tomb of Cleopatra will be one of the biggest discoveries of the century,” she instructed NCS. “Since the ancient Egyptians speak to us through their tombs, I believe that she should have all this important information that she wanted us to know about her, about her time, about the way she thinks.”
Despite her brief lifetime of simply 39 years, Cleopatra made an influence on the ancient world as one among a handful of feminine rulers and the final pharaoh of Egypt.
Cleopatra was born in Alexandria in 69 BC, topped queen on the age of 18 and died in 30 BC after being defeated by Octavian, also called Emperor Augustus and the founding father of the Roman Empire, throughout the Battle of Actium in 31 BC.
As a part of their victory, the Romans destroyed photos of Cleopatra in order that she can be forgotten, and solely seven statues survive that seem to depict the queen, Martínez stated.
“Cleopatra is a mystery and she also became a myth,” Martínez stated. “There’s so many questions raised about her, even how she looked like. So the discovery of her tomb, if it’s intact, will answer all those questions.”
Rather than permitting herself to be captured by the Romans, legend has it that Cleopatra let a toxic asp chew her in Alexandria, in keeping with the documentary. But the precise circumstances of her dying stay unknown, with some researchers suggesting she died by ingesting poison.
“I believe she would have done anything to stop her body being in the hands of the Romans,” Martínez stated in the documentary.
Martínez’s speculation is that after dying, Cleopatra’s physique was dropped at Taposiris Magna, transported by the tunnel to the offshore port and laid to relaxation in a secret location.
In life, Cleopatra was carefully related to the goddess Isis, provided that ancient Egyptians thought of royal figures to be extensions of deities. Martínez checked out all the temples close to Alexandria, the place Cleopatra reportedly died, ruling them out as her remaining resting place in the event that they have been small or not a temple of Isis.
Martínez zeroed in on the ruins of the big temple of Taposiris Magna, positioned in what’s now the city of Borg El Arab, even if there was no details about which deity the temple was for or who constructed it.
After being granted a license to excavate on the temple in 2004, Martínez and her staff uncovered a piece of blue glass in 2005. The glass, etched with descriptions in Greek and hieroglyphics, was a basis plate that stated the temple was devoted to the goddess Isis.
Weeks later, the expedition staff additionally discovered a whole lot of bronze cash bearing the face and title of Cleopatra on the website. Since then, Martínez and her staff have uncovered a multitude of artifacts, together with the lengthy tunnel positioned 43 ft (13 meters) beneath Taposiris Magna found in 2022. When the staff realized the tunnel appeared to steer proper to the ocean, Martínez reached out to Ballard to see what the tunnel is perhaps pointing to underwater.
During archaeological dives, the staff discovered what seemed to be a sunken inland harbor, now coated by coral. Mapping reveals that the ancient shoreline is positioned about 2.4 miles (4 kilometers) from the present shoreline, the ministry shared in a assertion.
Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, stated the invention of the sunken port provides considerably to Egyptian maritime archaeology, provided that the positioning is just not referenced in ancient sources, in keeping with the assertion.
Sherif Fathy, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, stated the discover highlights that Egypt’s coasts served as strategic hubs for business and cultural communication with the remainder of the ancient world, in keeping with the assertion.
Fathy famous that the ministry will proceed to help Martínez’s analysis initiatives.
The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said last December in a social media publish that Martínez and her staff additionally made new discoveries beneath the southern wall of the Taposiris Magna’s outer enclosure.
The researchers uncovered 337 cash, with many depicting Cleopatra’s face, in addition to pottery and limestone vessels supposed to carry meals and cosmetics, statues, a bronze ring devoted to the goddess Hathor and an amulet formed like a scarab with the inscription, “The Justice of Ra has shone.”
The ring and ceramic items helped researchers decide that the temple’s development dated again to the primary century BC, the ministry stated.
A small statue of a girl carrying a diadem and a limestone bust of a king have been additionally unearthed.
Martínez believed the feminine statue to depict Cleopatra — a second that’s included in the documentary.
“Many archaeologists dispute this claim, noting that the facial features differ from known depictions of Cleopatra VII,” in keeping with a assertion from the ministry. “It is more likely the statue represents another royal woman or princess.”
Now, Martínez and her staff intend to take samples from the underwater website to raised perceive the artifacts and pottery discovered there up to now. She stated she looks like every excavation brings her one step nearer, and that discovering Cleopatra’s tomb — and certain the queen’s political ally and lover Roman common Mark Antony, since historic texts say they have been buried collectively — is just a matter of time.
“The discovery of her tomb will allow, with the modern technology, to know exactly how she died,” Martínez stated. “We can even reconstruct her face.”
But specialists stay skeptical about Martínez’s concept of a burial related to Taposiris Magna.
“My view is that Cleo was buried in the royal cemetery in Alexandria,” stated Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor Emeritus of Greek Culture on the University of Cambridge and A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, in an electronic mail.
Cartledge is a historian of the ancient Greco-Roman world and of Hellenistic Alexandria however stated he’s not a specialist in Cleopatra or an archaeologist of her time and place. He was not concerned in the excavation.
“(Emperor) Augustus will have wanted Cleo buried there and to remain buried there: Cleo was the last Phararoh of Egypt, and he presented himself — and Rome — as the legitimate, direct successors of the Pharaohs,” Cartledge stated. “Sadly, that quarter of Alexandria — due to earthquakes, land-subsidence and sea-level rise — is now irreversibly submerged, and not even Jacques Cousteau himself would be able to locate any Hellenic-Egyptian royal tombs.”
Discovering tombs and stays of royal figures of historic significance, corresponding to Egypt’s King Tutankhamun, is uncommon however can present super perception, stated Dr. Jane Draycott, a senior lecturer in ancient historical past in the School of Humanities on the University of Glasgow in Scotland.
For instance, the invention of King Richard III’s stays underneath a parking zone in Leicester in 2021 revolutionized how historians perceive the tip of the Plantagenet dynasty, Draycott stated.
Draycott was additionally not concerned in the Egyptian excavation.
“So far, no other Ptolemaic rulers’ tombs, that we know from ancient sources were in the royal quarter in Alexandria, have been discovered,” Draycott stated. She stays skeptical as a result of she has but to see any of Martínez’s work printed by peer-reviewed educational publications, making it troublesome to evaluate veracity.
“Cleopatra had her own private port in Alexandria, next to her palace, and the literary sources all seem to agree that her tomb was in Alexandria, not Taposiris Magna,” Draycott wrote in an electronic mail. “Obviously, if she did discover Cleopatra’s tomb, and enough of it remained to allow it to be definitively identified (e.g. Inscriptions flat out stating that is what it was), this would be an incredible find.”
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