A 2,000-year-old pleasure boat wreck off the coast of Alexandria has been unearthed by underwater archaeologists. The discovery, announced on Monday, revealed the hull of the ancient Egyptian vessel, measuring over 115 feet in length and about 23 feet wide, resting in the harbor near Antirhodos island. The IEASM (European Institute for Underwater Archaeology) described the find in a statement, noting Greek graffiti on the hull dating to roughly the first half of the first century AD, which supports the idea that the ship was built in Alexandria.
According to the institute, the boat would have featured a richly decorated cabin and appears to have been propelled exclusively by oars. Antirhodos, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, was later submerged by a series of earthquakes and tidal events that struck the coast, uncovering the island in 1996. Over the years, divers have recovered statues, coins, and other treasures there, with some now on display at Alexandria’s Greco-Roman Museum.
Franck Goddio, director of IEASM, recently published a report on Antirhodos and its Temple of Isis, based on underwater explorations conducted since the 1990s. He told the Guardian that this discovery is exceptionally exciting because it marks the first time such a boat has been found in Egypt. Ancient writers like Strabo had mentioned boats of this kind, and they appear in iconography—the Palestrina mosaic even shows a smaller version used by nobles hunting hippopotamuses—but no actual vessel of this type had ever been recovered before.
Future investigations of the wreck promise to open a fascinating window into the daily life, religious practices, wealth, and leisure activities along the waterways of Roman-era Egypt. Alexandria remains a treasure trove of ancient ruins and artifacts, yet the city is increasingly vulnerable to climate change and rising seas, with sea levels rising roughly three millimeters annually. Even under optimistic UN projections, a significant portion of Alexandria could be submerged or rendered uninhabitable by 2050.
The region has yielded other notable shipwrecks in the bay, including remnants from Napoleon Bonaparte’s fleet during the 1798 Battle of the Nile. Earlier this year, IEASM recovered a well-preserved boat about 20 feet long in Alexandria’s eastern harbor. In August, archaeologists announced the recovery of ancient statues, Roman coins, and additional artifacts from the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria. Authorities suggest the site may extend from the ancient Canopus, a major hub during the Ptolemaic Kingdom and later the Roman era.
The news of the pleasure-boat discovery follows recent announcements about extensive funerary artifacts found in Tanis, in Egypt’s Nile Delta, highlighting a moment of renewed excitement in Egyptology and underwater archaeology.
