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# Ancient Sculptures Recovered From Sunken City Off Alexandria
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/ancient-sculptures-recovered-from-sunken-city-off-alexandria/
- Published: 2025-08-22T20:40:08.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:11:39.000Z
- Description: Statues including an intact sphinx and a Ptolemaic figure were hoisted out of the water on the Egyptian coast.
- Author: Maya Pontone
- Tags: News, Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-large, #Import 2025-11-24 09:41 (2025)

Pieces of limestone buildings, marble and granite royal statues, and the remains of a merchant ship are among the relics of an ancient sunken city retrieved by Egyptian authorities off the shores of Alexandria.

Dating back more than 2,000 years, the artifacts were [reportedly](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/21/egypt-retrieves-parts-of-2000-year-old-sunken-city-canopus-off-coast-of-alexandria?ref=hyperallergic.com) hoisted from a submerged archaeological site in Abu Qir Bay yesterday, August 21\. Egyptian officials told *Agence France-Presse* that the area may be part of the long-lost seaport Canopus, a prominent trade, religious, and luxury hub that flourished during Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty and the Roman empire. A combination of [rising sea levels and continuous earthquakes](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/sunken-underwater-anicent-cities?ref=hyperallergic.com) drowned the metropolis and neighboring [Thonis-Heracleion](https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/15/lost-cities-6-thonis-heracleion-egypt-sunken-sea?ref=hyperallergic.com) approximately 1,200 years ago.

Like its ancient predecessors, Alexandria is also vulnerable to rising sea levels. The United Nations estimates that at least [a third of the historic city will be underwater or uninhabitable](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/29/climate/coastal-cities-underwater.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) by 2050, displacing 1.5 million of its six million residents.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2025/08/gettyimages-2230463146.jpg)

Divers watch as a crane recovers a statue from the depths at Abu Qir Bay. (photo by Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images)

The resurfaced artifacts include remnants of buildings that may have been religious spaces, residences, and commercial businesses. Officials also recovered partially preserved pre-Roman statues of sovereigns and sphinxes, such as a beheaded Ptolemaic granite sculpture and an incomplete sphinx with a cartouche bearing the inscription of Ramesses II, whose reign as pharaoh was the second longest in Egyptian history. Other finds included rock-carved ponds used for fish cultivation and water storage.

The newly recovered artifacts are set to be featured in an ongoing exhibition at the Alexandria National Museum exploring the Greek, Roman, and Hellenistic history through underwater archaeology, [*NBC*](https://www.nbcnews.com/world/middle-east/ruins-2000-year-old-sunken-city-pulled-waters-alexandria-egypt-rcna226492?ref=hyperallergic.com)reported. *Secrets of the Sunken City* opened this week and currently displays 86 artifacts.

"There’s a lot underwater, but what we’re able to bring up is limited, it’s only specific material according to strict criteria," Egypt's tourism and antiquities minister Sherif Fath told *AFP* about the recently retrieved archaeological treasures. “The rest will remain part of our sunken heritage.”