Overview

• Divers raised four objects from the seabed near Alexandria and presented them at an onshore ceremony.
• The centerpiece is a 2.17-meter granite statue missing head and legs that experts date to the Late Period or Ptolemaic era and estimate at roughly five meters when intact.
• Archaeologists also brought up another statue fragment and an ancient shipwreck, with further details to follow after examinations.
• The recoveries are part of a project active since 2023 focused on the submerged city of Thonis-Heraklion, which researchers found in the 1990s.
• Antiquities chief Mohamed Ismail Chaled confirmed the operation as the first of its kind since 2001, as Egypt promotes cultural tourism with visitor numbers up 22 percent and the Grand Egyptian Museum’s opening planned for November 1.