Cleopatra Revisited

Lover of Julius Caesar, wife of Marc Antony, victim of Augustus Caesar, Cleopatra was unquestionably one of the most famous women of history. Remembered in legend as a remarkable beauty whose allure ensnared the Roman leaders, she was more likely a surprisingly plain woman, experts now agree, who used intelligence, seduction and murderous ambition to consolidate her country’s rule of the southern Mediterranean.

But despite her renown, remnants of Cleopatra’s personal life in her capital city of Alexandria have remained elusive.

Last summer, however, a team of French archeologists discovered what they believe to be the remains of Cleopatra’s palace, hidden 15 feet below the surface of Alexandria’s harbor.

Crushed by massive earthquakes in the 4th, 12th and 14th centuries, the palace and its associated shrines, piers and promenades sank beneath the water like Atlantis.

Buried by silt and sewage from a city that now numbers 5 million residents, the remains have over the centuries taken on the appearance of rocks and hillocks, preventing their discovery until Franck Goddio and his colleagues brought to bear the sophisticated techniques of underwater archeology.

The palace of Cleopatra and her ancestors “was the key to Alexandria, and Alexandria was the key to Egypt” during the decades before and after the birth of Christ, Goddio said in a recent interview.

Goddio’s discoveries have already forced historians to redraw maps of early Alexandria, and have revealed new clues about religious practices of the period. Goddio thinks he may even know where Cleopatra’s mausoleum is located and hopes to eventually locate her mummy.

His ultimate dream is to create an underwater archeological park where tourists could walk through glass tunnels and view the historical artifacts that illuminate the last grand era of Egyptian history.

“We are opening a whole new world,” he said. “This is the world’s heritage.”

Alexandria was founded in 332 BC by Alexander the Great. At its height, the city was a commercial and cultural center, filled with gardens, fountains and temples. The lighthouse in its harbor was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Alexander entrusted rule of Egypt to his lieutenant Ptolemy, founder of a dynasty that lasted 302 years. Cleopatra Ptolemy VII, daughter of Ptolemy XII and Cleopatra VI, was born in 69 BC. Eighteen years later, she was named co-ruler with her younger brother, Ptolemy XIII, after her father died and two older sisters were killed trying to seize the throne.

Over the next 21 years, she carved out one of the most storied, and infamous, reigns in history. She killed Ptolemy XIII and a younger brother, negotiated lucrative land and oil deals with Arab neighbors, established internal peace and kept open important caravan trade routes from the Nile to the Red Sea.

Her fatal mistake was marrying Marc Antony and backing his efforts to seize the Roman Empire. The couple’s massive fleet was destroyed by Augustus in the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, and both committed suicide the next year, ending the Ptolemaic era.

Cleopatra’s palace was located on the small island of Antirhodes in Alexandria’s harbor. The only existing description was provided by the Turkish scribe Strabo, who visited in 27 BC. But maps drawn from his descriptions are inconsistent with written depictions of various battles in the harbor.

Three years ago, Goddio began by crisscrossing the 800-acre bay with magnetic and sonar equipment, locating the sites of what appeared to be interesting anomalies below the bay’s floor. His team subsequently mapped the entire floor precisely, using global positioning satellites supplemented by local beacons to measure the location of sites with an accuracy of 5 feet.

With the new map, “the battle stories are very logical,” Goddio said.

Last summer, they went back to explore the underwater area they had identified as Antirhodes--so named because it rivaled the splendid Greek island of Rhodes.

One of their first discoveries, just off Antirhodes, was the remains of a ship that has been carbon-dated to the period 90 BC to AD 190. The 100-foot vessel represents “one of the best-preserved ancient ships ever found,” according to archeologist Steve Vincent of the University of Chicago.

The ship’s port of origin and function are unknown, but it has a large hole in the bow, suggesting that it sank after being rammed by a warship. Vincent speculates that it was a cargo ship capable of carrying 300 tons of grain in tightly packed large pottery vessels called amphorae. Egypt provided about 30,000 tons of grain to Rome each year.

On the 65-acre island, Goddio’s team found what it believes to be the foundation of Cleopatra’s palace. The structure was more than 50 yards long and 37 yards wide.

Close to the palace were two remarkably undamaged sphinxes. They were probably lost in the earthquakes, Goddio said. “If they had been destroyed by men, their noses would have been hammered off. It is extremely rare to find sphinxes with perfect faces.”

One of the sphinxes, according to archeologist Zsolt Kiss of the Polish Academy of Sciences, bears the likeness of Ptolemy XII, Cleopatra’s father.

Next to the ruins of the palace, Goddio found a shrine to the goddess Isis--a feature of most Egyptian palaces. The most striking item found at the shrine was a life-size statue of a priest, Goddio said.

All previous statues of the type were missing their heads, he said. This statue depicts a priest with a shaven head and a monk’s fringe around the sides.

Although the statue and the sphinxes were brought to the surface for examination, both have been lowered back to where they were found for preservation. Objects that have been under water for long periods are subject to degradation in the air unless they undergo a lengthy preservation process.

Goddio’s explorations will be the subject of “Cleopatra’s Palace,” to be shown on the Discovery channel at 9 p.m. on Sunday. Further information is also available at the Web sites www.discovery.com and www.underwaterdiscovery.org.