Egypt to open ancient port city
Egyptian antiquities experts walk down the stairs of a royal tomb entrance at the ancient city of Leukaspis.
Egypt is planning to open the ancient city of Leukaspis, a 2,000-year-old Greco-Roman port city buried under the northern modern resort of Marina.
Also known as Antiphrae, the city was hidden for centuries after it was nearly wiped out by a tsunami that devastated the region in the fourth century.
Egyptian authorities have now decided to open the site with all its two-story villas and zigzagg streets nearly 25 years after its discovery, AP reported.
"Visitors can go to understand how people lived back then, how they built their graves, lived in villas or traded in the main agora (square)," said the local inspector for Egypt's antiquities department Ahmed Amin.
The ancient tombs and houses of Leukaspis were found when Chinese engineers were building roads for the Marina resort in 1986.
Excavations conducted by Polish archaeologists during the 1990s revealed that the ancient city had been a prosperous port town with up to 15,000 residents who lived on exporting grains, livestock and olives to the rest of the Mediterranean region.
Archeologists found the remains of a basilica, a bathhouse, deeply buried burial chambers of the city's necropolis as well as Greek columns and bright limestone walls up to two meters high.
Studies also showed that the city had a sophisticated sewer system.
Egypt is planning to open Leukaspis by mid-September 2010.
TE/HGH
