Egyptian treasures from ancient underwater city to be exhibited for first time
Ancient Egyptian artefacts from submerged cities to be unveiled at major Paris exhibition
Spectacular ancient Egyptian treasures are to be exhibited for the first time following their underwater discovery amid the submerged ruins of the near-legendary cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus.
A finely sculpted statuette of a pharaoh and a golden-eyed depiction of Osiris, one of the most important gods, are among antiquities to be unveiled to the public in a major exhibition in Paris from next month.
The cities were almost razed from mankind's memory after sinking beneath the waves in the eighth century AD following cataclysmic natural disasters including an earthquake and tidal waves.
Across a vast site in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria, the seabed has been giving up secrets from a lost world in an excavation led by Franck Goddio, a French marine archaeologist.
Founding head of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology in Paris, Goddio is working with the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and the Egyptian authorities.
He said: "There will be many important artefacts which have never been seen before, even in Egypt, as they have been discovered recently during our underwater missions."