How could two powerful and thriving ancient Egyptian cities just disappear? Or were they mythical, like the lost ancient city of Atlantis?

The Missing Cities

Thonis-Heracleion (don’t ask how to pronounce that) was totally submerged in the waters of the Mediterranean. But no one knew. It had been sitting there for over a thousand years, its massive temples serving as homes to fish, its hieroglyphs growing algae, its statues sinking in the sands, its treasures lost in the water.

Canopus, a neighboring city, was also known to historians from Greek mythology and Egyptian writings. And like Thonis Heracleion, it also sat beneath the water.

The two cities probably date back at least to the seventh century BCE (that means they were built sometime from 700 BCE to 601 BCE while the Bayis Rishon was still standing). Located at the intersection of the Nile and Mediterranean, Thonis-Heracleion was an important trade center between ancient Egypt, Greece, and other cities dotting the Mediterranean. This is where grain, perfume, and papyrus (a type of ancient paper) were imported, and where silver, copper, wine, and oil were exported. This city was Egypt’s urban gateway to the rest of the world. (Canopus was an important city to the ancient Egyptians, who came there to practice avodah zarah.)

Thonis-Heracleion was built on a bunch of interconnected islands in the Nile Delta, the place where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. The city contained a network of canals, harbors, wharves, bridges, temples, and towers. It controlled nearly all the water-bound traffic entering Egypt from the Mediterranean. This is where customs checks were carried out and taxes collected; it’s where goods were divided up and separated for transport deeper into Egypt.

But the location that caused them to thrive also led to their downfall. The sea levels rose. Earthquakes in the area triggered massive tidal waves (tsunamis!). And the ground beneath the cities began sinking down, down, down. Researchers think a severe flood finally did them in, with the hard clay soil beneath the buildings turning to liquid in a matter of mere moments. The buildings on top simply crashed into the water. Terrifying, right?!

By the end of the second century BCE, around the time that the Chanukah story took place and the Chashmonaim came into power, those entire cities, even with their 16-foot tall, 12,000-pound statues and massive temples were completely submerged, 32 feet beneath the sea, covered in layers of sand and silt… And nearby Alexandria, about 20 miles to the south, became ancient Egypt’s most important port city.