:-)
Posted on 10/18/2001 1:46:50 PM PDT by blam
The whole city was built out on the beach, for all practical purposes; the underlying strata just slid the whole works into the drink, as if it were on a tobaggan.
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
The Lighthouse (Pharos) of Alexandria
Alaa K. Ashmawy
http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/Wonders/pharos.html
In AD 956, an earthquake shook Alexandria, and caused little damage to the Lighthouse. It was later in 1303 and in 1323 that two stronger earthquakes left a significant impression on the structure. When the famous Arab traveler Ibn Battuta visited Alexandria in 1349, he could not enter the ruinous monument or even climb to its doorway... In 1166, an Arab traveler, Abou-Haggag Al-Andaloussi visited the Lighthouse. He documented a wealth of information and gave an accurate description of the structure which helped modern archeologists reconstruct the monument. It was composed of three stages: The lowest square, 55.9 m (183.4 ft) high with a cylindrical core; the middle octagonal with a side length of 18.30 m (60.0 ft) and a height of 27.45 m (90.1 ft); and the third circular 7.30 m (24.0 ft) high. The total height of the building including the foundation base was about 117 m (384 ft), equivalent to a 40-story modern building. The internal core was used as a shaft to lift the fuel needed for the fire. At the top stage, the mirror reflected sunlight during the day while fire was used during the night. In ancient times, a statue of Poseidon adorned the summit of the building.
The Good Friday 1964 earthquake near Anchorage destroyed the city through liquefaction. Buildings sank into the dry ground that was temporarily in a liquidlike form. It is a glacial outwash plain, sedimentary in nature. An alluvial fan would also be sedimentary in nature, so a powerful earthquake could cause liquifaction in the Nile delta, and cities would sink into the muck.
Yeah, and earthquake, even a small one, could have turned the substrate into mush. Also, it seems I may have misread this part of the article:
"This city is absolutely untouched," Goddio said. "Everything is in its original position."
I read that to mean the site was essentially buried intact, but it doesn't necessarily say that. The author probably means the site has been undisturbed since its burial at sea ;^)
Still in all, he implies(I think) the site was covered fairly quickly by sediment, which still seems odd. I mean we're talking a combination of a flood and earthquake at roughly the same time. Or at the very least a flood following on the heels of an earthquake???
I dunno. I get frustrated with this "stuff". Seems every piece I read just raises more questions than answers.
FGS
The subsequent burial under new sand probably happened because of the tides; regarding how close the nearest Nile mouth is, I dunno. Let's have a look at the archives...
from Dec 2000:
New Theories Into What Sank Ancient Egyptian Cities
by Matthew Fordahl
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/121800/sunken_cities.sml
Why Do the Gods Sleep With the Fishes?
by Kenneth Chang http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/26/science/26SUNK.html?pagewanted=all
City limitsThe first complete map of the drowned quarters of ancient Alexandria has been compiled by French archaeologist Franck Goddio. It shows the exact location of Pharaonic palaces, temples and dockyards. Goddio thinks the new map probably shows the outline of the city before the 8th century, when a major earthquake submerged much of the coastline... The 19th century maps showed structures only in the eastern part of the harbour. Goddio's excavations show that the eastern part of the bay was reserved for royal palaces and harbours, as well as temples, but the western part held dockyards and commercial ports. Sphinxes, statues and colossal heads, including one thought to be of Caesarion, Cleopatra's son by Julius Caesar, have been brought to the surface.
Emma Young
1530 GMT, 10 April 2001Riddle of Egypt's ghost cities is solvedThe cities of Menouthis and Thonis -- also known as Eastern Canopus and Herakleion -- have inspired and bemused archaeologists for centuries. Coins, plays and other papyrus texts written in Greek and Latin point to the existence of two cities at the mouth of the Nile that existed from the times of the Pharoahs, becoming thriving trading posts with a reputation for immorality and luxuriant living... Experts speculated the cause could have been a sudden catastrophe -- rising seas, perhaps, subsidence or an earthquake... In the mid-8th century AD -- the best bet is 741 or 742 -- the Nile spat its wrath, rising more than a metre (3.25 feet) above its usual flood peak. Its churning waters overwhelmed the cities' flimsy defences, washed away the buildings' foundations and then covered them forever as the river permanently shifted course... An earthquake can be ruled out because there is no record of a temblor in Egypt at this time, they add.
Thursday July 19, 2:01 AMFlooding Blamed for Cities' SinkingIn Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, geologist Jean-Daniel Stanley of the Smithsonian Institution and two colleagues from the European Institute of Nautical Archaeology in Paris argue that flooding did the cities in. When the cities were first discovered, archaeologists had assumed that an earthquake sent them to their watery end. Stanford University geologist Amos Nur, who has also studied the site, still prefers that theory. "We have identified three earthquakes that probably devastated the city in the eighth century," Nur said.
by Matt Crenson
Wednesday July 18 2:02 PM ETAncient cities vanished into muddy morassThe disappearance of these cities has been blamed on earthquakes, subsidence and rising sea levels. But Jean-Daniel Stanley, a coastal geoarchaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, blames the Nile... The ruins of the two long lost Greek cities of Eastern Canopus and Herakleion were uncovered in 1999 and 2000 by marine archaeologist Franck Goddio of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology in Paris... Hi-tech surveys of the seafloor revealed the substantial remains of Eastern Canopus 1.6 kilometres offshore and buried under five metres of mud. The city of Herakleion lies beneath seven metres of mud 5.4 kilometres from the shore. Today the nearest branch of the Nile lies more than 20 kilometres to the east of Abu Qir bay. But the surveys show that both cities once stood at the mouth of a now-extinct branch of the Nile - where they could control incoming vessels and tax goods being shipped upriver... Excavations at the two sites indicate that both cities were damaged by earthquakes before they disappeared.
by Stephanie Pain
19:00 18 July 01
I think I'll just call it an "Act of God" and be done with it ;^)
I suppose the point is, we mortals have little control over the planet when the natural processes do their thang. Standing in awe is about as good as it gets.
FGS
:') The recent tsunami makes it easy to agree with you. :')
:-)
"it's a madhouse! a madhouse!"
;') Love that movie. The new DVD edition has a bunch of extra stuff, including two distinct "commentary" soundtrack options.
Haven't seen the DVD--I should check that out. AMC did a nice documentary a couple years ago called "Behind the Planet of the Apes".
Planet of the Apes
Widescreen 35th Anniversary EditionPlanet of the Apes
DVD, widescreen, original edition
Incidentally, a friend of mine just got done transferring this series to a PC-viewable/hearable format:
Power Records PLANET OF THE APES Storybook
I recall a television show on Alexandria..
The question of why it took so long came up..
Seems there are some good reasons..
Weather and tidal forces are the main ones, it seems that the coast off the Nile Delta is a bad place for both..
The Alexandria team went for weeks without being able to dive at all, and when they did, it was only for a few hours..
The weather often kept them out of the water altogether..
When the weather did cooperate, the underwater tides and currents in the dive areas were so strong that the divers were dragged and battered around most of the time, and spent most of their efforts in survival rather than excavtion..
I assume this is the case for these sites as well..
Not only "dirty" water, but strong tides and currents, and generally rough weather through most of the season all contribute to the difficulty of diving..
I would also note that similar problems have been documented in other parts of the mediterranean as well, not just Egypt..
I think part of it has to do with the enormous effect the currents coming through the straits of gibraltor have..
High and low tides cause an incredible rush of water through the straits, which could affect currents for hundreds of miles inside the mediterranean proper..
Herakleion and East Canopus once stood at the mouth of the now-extinct Canopic branch of the Nile. Built sometime between the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., ...-snip-
Menelaus, the king of Sparta and husband to Helen, over whom the Trojan War was fought, was said to have stayed in Herakleion following the ten-year war against Troy.
That was one hell of a long vacation.
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"I was thinking of New Orleans, it's below sea level. They have to pump water out everytime it rains. "
They bury their dead above ground so they can make it to the polls.
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