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Divers Find Remains of Ancient Temple in Sunken Egyptian City
- cm2187 7y agoI am curious about what flooded it. Surely the sea level didn't increase by 45m in that short amount of time.
- pjc50 7y agoIt looks like the sea level for the northern side of the Mediterranean increased by about 1.5 meters since Roman times, due to isostatic rebound: http://people.rses.anu.edu.au/lambeck_k/pdf/242.pdf http://people.rses.anu.edu.au/lambeck_k/pdf/242.pdf The wikipedia page for Heracleion attributes it to "soil liquefaction", i.e. the whole city's underlying soft soil/sand became fluid enough to wash away. It must have been eroded to other parts of the sea, leaving the inerodible stoneworks lying there.
- rurban 7y agoIt even increased by 2500m in the last 6 million years. The Nile cut at Cairo into a huge canyon. This area is constantly sinking. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messinian_salinity_crisis
- projectileboy 7y agoHighly recommend visiting the touring exhibit of artifacts from Thonis-Heracleion if you get a chance.
- jakeogh 7y agoFascianting chan that catalogs old structures. No commentary: https://www.youtube.com/user/vlad9vt https://www.youtube.com/user/vlad9vt
- CaptainJustin 7y agoVlad's videos are amazing. I think he's explored quite a bit that is difficult to find much on.
- joosters 7y agoThanks for that link - fascinating videos, I've already lost a couple of hours browsing through them.
- adam0c 7y agothis is old news, even the article is from 29th July there is actually more photos in this article about it by the sun of all newspapers! actual real factual news in the sun! (for those of you that are unfamiliar the sun is a tabloid paper in the uk that basically does boobs on page 3 and sports that's about it) https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/9571371/heracleion-ancient-egypt-temple-ship/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/9571371/heracleion-ancient-egy...
- dmix 7y agoAmerican news sites haven't figured out these articles told via big pictures with captions the UK sites always use. It's a great format for low-density information and low cognitive effort reading.
- LifeIsBio 7y agoVisiting Egypt, particularly as an American, is an amazing experience. I tend to think of the American Revolution as “a long time ago”. After all, that’s when the country began. Egypt, on the other hand, is a whole different ball game. It’s easy to recognize this on an intellectual level by reading on Wikipedia. But to see the history laid out like geological stratum is something else: layers on layers of civilization after civilization. Sometimes quite literally, like cases of hieroglyphics covered in multiple layers of graffiti, each layer in a different language. It’s also enjoyable to see how enthusiastic Egyptians are about this history, and about new discoveries like this one. If you ever get the chance to go, go.
- rags2riches 7y agoThe old town of Split, Croatia, is built inside a third century Roman palace. When I visited, I was confused by all the Egyptian artefacts and artwork there. Until I realized that the Romans of course also enjoyed historical stuff from thousands of years ago.
- CogitoCogito 7y agoMy go to reminder of how old civilization is is the fact that the time between Great Pyramid and Jesus is longer than the time between Jesus and today. And this ignores even that we know of rather large settlements (hundreds) even twice the age of the Great Pyramid.
- joosters 7y agoA similar comparison: Cleopatra lived closer in time to the moon landings than to the building of the Great Pyramid. (And not just by a small amount of time but about 500 years or so)
- octocop 7y agoI wonder who is doing these expeditions, is it the Egyptian government?
- moate 7y agoDefine "doing". Funding? Performing the exploration/excavation of these sites?
- diveanon 7y ago45m is well within range of recreational diving, I wonder if this will become a diving destination. Personally I would love to dive ruins like this, bit the cynic in me knows that tourists would strip the location and ruin it.
- nradov 7y agoSome sensitive areas have had good results with requiring tourists to dive with licensed local guides. But 45m is a little deeper than most recreational divers can safely go. To do it safely and get a reasonable bottom time takes some basic technical dive training plus double tanks with normoxic trimix, and a decompression stage. (I know many divers have gone deeper using a single tank with compressed air but if anything goes wrong it can turn deadly in seconds.)
- diveanon 7y agoMy deepest dive on a single tank was 57m, and I wouldn't recommend that or try to repeat it. Down currents can be terrifying. You're right that 45m puts of out of range of most divers, but it is definitely still a doable dive with decent divers on twins and a deco stage. The visibility in the photo looks decent for a silty bottom, I wonder what the current is like since it is in the Nile. I am also curious about what caused it to become submerged in 45m of water 1500 years ago.
- smileysteve 7y ago57m on a single tank would just be so short too; air goes quick at that depth, and the longer you stay down the longer you have to take getting up.
- diveanon 7y agoit was definitely not the plan. I remember being hooked on the wall and seeing my bubbles descending behind me. That dive felt more like mountain climbing than diving.
- spodek 7y agoAncient Egypt reminds me of Ozymandias and the humility and perspective we could learn from time or within our lifetimes we'll be able to dive to see remains of soon-to-be lost cities like Miami.
- darepublic 7y agoThey would find the remains of ancient basketball arenas
- benbojangles 7y agotreasures from the wreck of the unbelievable!
- benbojangles 7y agohttps://news.artnet.com/art-world/damien-hirst-created-fake-documentary-venice-show-can-see-netflix-1192922 https://news.artnet.com/art-world/damien-hirst-created-fake-...