Overview

• Divers and cranes raised statues from Abu Qir Bay, including a quartz sphinx bearing Ramesses II’s cartouche, a granite Ptolemaic figure and a white marble Roman nobleman.
• Authorities say the submerged settlement may be an extension of ancient Canopus dating to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
• Survey work documented a 125‑metre dock, while a merchant ship, stone anchors and a harbour crane were left in place due to their size.
• Officials noted that many statues lack heads or feet, which they interpret as damage from an earthquake or sudden submersion.
• The retrieved pieces are being conserved for the Secrets of the Sunken City exhibition at the Alexandria National Museum, as the discovery refocuses attention on Alexandria’s subsidence and UN projections of significant inundation by 2050.