THE UNDERWATER WORLD

The monumental

The sea gives up the head of a colossal statue of Ptolemy as pharaoh

In 1993 a mass of concrete blocks were dumped in the sea upon an unexplored ancient site at the foot of Qaitbay Fort, long recognised to be the site of the Pharos. As a result, the Egyptian antiquities service called upon the CEA to undertake an underwater salvage excavation. The first campaign took place in October 1994 thanks to the financial support of the IFAO. The financial baton was taken on by Elf-Aquitaine in 1995 to be joined by the EDF Foundation in 1996. Away from the cameras that followed the excavation from 1995 to 1997 and made the site famous, the work continues. The charting of the site is almost completed and we now turn ourselves to an architectural analysis of the site. The results have been interesting with certain monuments in situ and graphic reconstructions of some of these have been realised. This is a long-term job involving more than 2500 architectural elements and will require several years. The modern concrete blocks that covered a part of the ancient site were removed in January 2001 and hundreds of new architectural elements have appeared.

Base of an obelisk inscribed to Seti I. Excavations off Qaitbay Fort.

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