Fouad Street site (Greek Orthodox Patriarchate)

View of the site december 2002
photo : © CEA - all rights reserved

Under the direction of Francis CHOËL and Marie JACQUEMIN, the excavations on the Fouad Street site are progressing well. The cisterns have been dismantled and, in the midst of deep pits dug during the Ottoman period, Hellenistic levels have been reached. Within these homogenous strata we have found material from the 2nd century BC: bronze coins bearing the portrait of one of the Cleopatras, a little terracotta stove with an engraved inscription demonstrating that it came from the town of Cnidus, faience objects including one of a very expressive actor. The site continues to be challenging and interesting with a complex stratigraphy as part of a sector of the city that has constantly been occupied. The bedrock cannot be much deeper and we hope that the water table will not prevent us from reaching it. Then we will be able to shift the excavation to another part of this plot, slightly further to the south and even closer to the Canopic Way of antiquity.