Ancient pleasure barge discovered off Alexandria coast –

The wreckage of a first-century AD pleasure ship has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. This is the first luxury ancient yacht from the Roman period discovered in Egypt.

The shipwreck was discovered near the island of Antirodos, which was home to the Ptolemaic palace that was submerged in an earthquake in 365 AD. The hull was found 23 feet below the surface, buried under 5 feet of sediment, which helped keep it largely intact. The ship was originally about 35 meters (115 feet) long and 7 meters (23 feet) wide, with 28 meters (92 feet) of the hull remaining. Since it has no sails, the boat is entirely human-powered and requires about 20 oarsmen to propel it.

The hull design is flat and wide, suitable for sailing in shallow water, and supports a central cabin with luxurious amenities. This type of vessel is called a thalamegos and was most famously used by the Ptolemaic Dynasty as a palatial royal barge on the Nile. Less elaborate yachts were used by government officials for administrative purposes, but also for religious ceremonies, community festivals and as houseboats.

A Greek inscription on one of the structurally reinforced beams dates the ship’s construction to the first half of the 1st century AD, indicating that it was built in Alexandria. It sank near the Temple of Isis, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 50 AD. Archaeologists speculate that the ship sank in the same earthquake that destroyed the temple, and that it may have been used by the temple for rituals, including the annual “navigatio iside” procession, in which a vessel representing the sun-galleon of the goddess Isis sailed along the Canopic Canal from the Grand Harbor to the sanctuary of Osiris at Canopus.

The first-century B.C. geographer Strabo described “cabin ships” being used for banquets, by the governors who sailed to Upper Egypt and by “the crowds of revelers who passed through the canals from Alexandria to the public festivals; for they were crowded every day and night with those who played flutes and danced with great abandon, both men and women.” He also gave a detailed description of the great port of Alexandria, including the island of Antirodos, in Book 17 of Alexander the Great. geography.

Below these is the artificially excavated harbor, which was the private property of the king and was hidden from view, and Antirodos, a small island beside the artificial harbor that contained a royal palace and a small harbor. They called him Rod’s rival. Above the artificial harbor is the theater; then there is Poseidon – an elbow, so to speak, sticking out from the so-called mall, with a temple of Poseidon inside.

The European Institute of Underwater Archeology (IEASM) has been surveying and excavating the eastern harbor of modern Alexandria since 1996, identifying remains of ancient Port Magnus and producing the first accurate maps of the port infrastructure, monuments and landscapes, some of which differ from descriptions in ancient sources. For example, the island of Antirhodos, which the IEASM team discovered during its first year of excavations, is located across from what Strabo said was the harbor.