Rome and Greece in Egypt? Ancient Egyptian Port Town Opening to Tourists

[amprotect=nonmember]More than two decades after it’s discovery near the modern resort town of Marina, Egyptian authorities are planning to open the ancient city of Leukaspis or Antiphrae to tourists.  The 2,000 year old Greco-Roman port city was buried for more than 1,500 years after an earthquake near Crete in 365 A.D. set off a tsunami that buried the area in water.

Leukaspis is a rare sight in Egypt- it’s two story villas and Greek columns are a good example of a classical city amid Egypt’s more famous pyramids, and temples.

Excavations in the 1990s showed this city was an active port town with nearly…[/amprotect][amprotect=1]

More than two decades after it’s discovery near the modern resort town of Marina, Egyptian authorities are planning to open the ancient city of Leukaspis or Antiphrae to tourists.  The 2,000 year old Greco-Roman port city was buried for more than 1,500 years after an earthquake near Crete in 365 A.D. set off a tsunami that buried the area in water.

Leukaspis is a rare sight in Egypt- it’s two story villas and Greek columns are a good example of a classical city amid Egypt’s more famous pyramids, and temples.

Excavations in the 1990s showed this city was an active port town with nearly 15,000 residents trading grain, wine and olives with the rest of the region.

Archeaologists say merchants lived in two story villas with a special system for collecting rainwater for drinking and pillared courtyards .  In the town center you can still see the remains of a basillica, and a public hall that became a church as Christianity spread across the Roman Empire. Like other Roman cities, Leukaspis had it’s own sophisticated sewer system.
Tourists will be able to climb down into tombs and the burial chambers of the city’s necropolis.

“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 Ahmed Amin, a local inspector for Egypt’s antiquities department.

Egyptian officials are hoping opening the area will bring a significant amount of tourists to the region.  Just 30 miles away, a team is looking for the burial place of Anthony and Cleopatra near the temple of Osiris.
Ancient pieces of pottery and bones still litter the ground in the area around Leukaspis, but with quick cleanup, Egypt is planning to open the ancient port city by mid-September 2010.[/amprotect]