Alexandria’s Underwater Museum
National Geographic has a story on the submerged artifacts in the bay of Alexandria and the Underwater Museum that is planned for the site. A team funded by UNESCO, will conduct tests to evaluate the feasibility of such a museum for the site.
Hundreds of artifacts were discovered at the site in the 90′s by Frank Goddio and his team consisting mostly of items thought to have once belonged to the palace of Cleopatra. These included statues, sphinxes, bronze plates and bowls, and huge blocks that once formed part of the palace or perhaps even came from the Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world.
From the National Geographic story:
Better Than a Movie
The proposed museum would be both inland and underwater. The dual nature is intended to create an experience like that of a traditional museum while also allowing visitors to witness artifacts in their submerged states.
“When you go to an archaeological site, you have an irreplaceable emotion. It’s not like going to see a movie,” said Paris-based Jacques Rougerie, lead architect on the feasibility study.
“It’s like the astronaut who cannot share with other people what it is like to be in space.”
Rougerie has designed a building with four tall structures shaped like the sails of fellucas, the sailboats (photo) that have journeyed the Nile since ancient times. These glass sails represent the four points of a compass and are illuminated with blue light in Rougerie’s illustrations.
“Those four points will be like the lighthouse of Alexandria that illuminated the library and the world,” Rougerie said. “I want to do the same thing with this museum.”
The larger, inland museum will have underwater fiberglass tunnels to structures where visitors can view antiquities still lying on the seabed.
But the bay’s murky waters could obscure the views of submerged monuments. The builders of the museum will either have to clean the water or replace it entirely with an artificial lagoon.
“As it stands, we have an ingenious idea,” said Amin, the Supreme Council expert.
“Try to picture a glass tube. And you simply put it over the main monuments that we need to highlight. It’s almost like putting each of these monuments in this tube.”
Read the full story
Read Al-Ahram’s piece on the topic: The Ptolemies through plexi-glass
Visit Frank Goddio’s website.
While on the topic of underwater artifacts found by Frank Goddio, here is a cup found by Goddio on the bottom of the harbor of Alexandria in May this year. According to their report, it dates from the first half of the first century. There is some speculation over it’s authenticity.
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