Annie, who is one of Mrs. Boll’s more fastidious Latin students, wants to know if we come across a lot of modern trash while diving and doing archaeological excavation on the Alexandria’s Sunken Royal Quarters. Is the harbor polluted? Do we ever find any gross things? Do you have to take a disinfecting shower after a dive?
Alexandria is a bustling city with millions of inhabitants, so I can understand why you would think that the water nearby might be an awful place to dive. You might be surprised to hear that, although there is a lot of litter on the seafloor where we work, the majority of it was dumped in the sea 2000 years ago. Alexandria’s Eastern Harbor is covered with broken amphoras that were tossed away during the ages of Ptolemy and Caesar, and are still rolling around everywhere.
And as far as sea life goes, we are often surrounded by crabs, shrimp, and schools of fish, so much so that there is a real possibility of getting caught up in the net of one of the many fishermen around us. You can see some sea life in the underwater photos on franckgoddio.org
In the deeper parts of the harbor there is more evidence of modern pollution, and a lot of plastic litter floats close to the shore, but we rarely work in those places, so we don’t have to worry about “Disinfecting”after a dive, and it is not unusual during good weather to see people swimming nearby the shore.
Plans are in the works to improve the water quality to the point that an underwater museum could be established, so that everyone could visit the site where Cleopatra’s Palace once stood.
Below is a picture of Ali in our local fishing port.
Alexandria is a bustling city with millions of inhabitants, so I can understand why you would think that the water nearby might be an awful place to dive. You might be surprised to hear that, although there is a lot of litter on the seafloor where we work, the majority of it was dumped in the sea 2000 years ago. Alexandria’s Eastern Harbor is covered with broken amphoras that were tossed away during the ages of Ptolemy and Caesar, and are still rolling around everywhere.
And as far as sea life goes, we are often surrounded by crabs, shrimp, and schools of fish, so much so that there is a real possibility of getting caught up in the net of one of the many fishermen around us. You can see some sea life in the underwater photos on franckgoddio.org
In the deeper parts of the harbor there is more evidence of modern pollution, and a lot of plastic litter floats close to the shore, but we rarely work in those places, so we don’t have to worry about “Disinfecting”after a dive, and it is not unusual during good weather to see people swimming nearby the shore.
Plans are in the works to improve the water quality to the point that an underwater museum could be established, so that everyone could visit the site where Cleopatra’s Palace once stood.
Below is a picture of Ali in our local fishing port.
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