Antirhodos
{{Short description|Former island in the eastern harbor of Alexandria, Egypt}}
{{Infobox ancient site
| name = Antirhodos
| native_name =
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| image = Plan of Alexandria c 30 BC Otto Puchstein 1890s EN.svg
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| caption = Map of ancient Alexandria.
"2" marks the island of Antirhodos.
| map =
| map_type = Egypt
| map_alt =
| map_caption = Map of Egypt showing the location of Antirhodos.
| map_size =
| altitude_m = -5
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| coordinates = {{coord|31|12|24|N|29|54|01|E|display=inline,title}}
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| location = Alexandria
| region = Egypt
| type = Island
| part_of = Alexandria Port
| length = {{convert|300|m|ft|-1}}
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| area = {{convert|500|ha|abbr=on}}
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| built = c. 250BC
| abandoned =
| epochs =
| cultures = Ptolemaic Kingdom
| dependency_of =
| occupants = Cleopatra
| event =
| excavations = 1996
| archaeologists = Franck Goddio
| condition = Submerged
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}}
Antirhodos (sometimes Antirrhodos or Anti Rhodes) was an island in the eastern harbor of Alexandria, Egypt, on which a Ptolemaic Egyptian palace was sited. The island was occupied until the reigns of Septimius Severus and Caracalla{{cite web |url=http://www.bubastis.be/expo/paris_2007/paris_03.html |title=Expositions (Grand Palais, Paris, 2006-2007): Trésors engloutis d'Égypte |website=www.bubastis.be |date=2007 |access-date=16 August 2015 |language=fr |trans-title=Exhibition (Grand Palais, Paris, 2006-7): Egypt's Sunken Treasures }} and it probably sank in the 4th century, when it succumbed to earthquakes and a tsunami following an earthquake in the eastern Mediterranean near Crete in the year 365. The site now lies underwater, near the seafront of modern Alexandria, at a depth of approximately {{convert|5|m|0|spell=in}}.{{cite news |author= |title=Sphinx of Cleopatra's father emerges from waves |url=http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/science/9810/29/cleopatra.sphinx/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323014538/http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/science/9810/29/cleopatra.sphinx/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 March 2016 |newspaper=CNN News |date=29 October 1998 |access-date=15 August 2015 }}
Descriptions of the island were recorded in classical antiquity by Greek geographers and historians. Strabo described a royal house on Antirhodos in 27 BC{{cite journal |last=Vizard |first=Frank |date=May 1999 |title=In Search of Cleopatra's Palace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pmPTH6m6Y6MC&q=antirhodos&pg=PA80 |journal=Popular Science |volume=254 |issue=5 |access-date=16 August 2015 }} and wrote that the island's name ("counter-Rhodes") derived from the island's rivalry with the island of Rhodes.{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/17A1*.html |title=The Geography of Strabo: Book XVII |author=Strabo |website=The University of Chicago |publisher=Bill Thayer |access-date=23 July 2015 |quote=They so called it as being a rival of Rhodes}} Antirhodos was part of Alexandria's ancient royal port called the Portus Magnus, which also included parts of the Lochias peninsula in the East and the island of Pharos in the West.{{cite book |last=Smith |first=William |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=alexandreia-geo |location=London |publisher=Walton and Maberly |page=27 |access-date=23 July 2015 }} The Portus Magnus was abandoned and left as an open bay after an earthquake in the 8th century.
Rediscovery
In 1996, underwater archaeology in the harbour of Alexandria conducted by Franck Goddio{{cite web|url=https://www.franckgoddio.org/projects/sunken-civilizations/alexandria.html/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927004211/https://www.franckgoddio.org/projects/sunken-civilizations/alexandria.html|archive-date=27 September 2021|title=Sunken Civilizations: Alexandria|website=Franck Goddio}} located the island and found that it was on the opposite side of the harbour from where it was placed by Strabo.{{cite web |url=http://www.virtual-egypt.com/newhtml/articles/Cleopatra's%20Sunken%20Palace2.htm |title=Cleopatra's Sunken Palace |author=Michael Sedge |author-link=Michael Sedge |website=Virtual Egypt |access-date=15 August 2015 }} The excavations showed that the island had been occupied from before the founding of Alexandria and that it was totally levelled and prepared for construction around 250BC.
The island was small (about {{convert|500|ha|-2|disp=or}}) and fully paved,{{cite journal |last=Mirsky |first=Steve |date=31 January 2010 |title=Cleopatra's Alexandria Treasures |url=http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/cleopatras-alexandria-treasures-10-01-31/ |journal=Scientific American |access-date=16 August 2015 }} with three branches leading in different directions. The main branch was {{convert|300|m|-2}} long and had an esplanade facing the site of the Caesarium temple on the mainland seafront.
On the esplanade Goddio uncovered the remains of a relatively modest (90 metres by 30 metres) marble-floored 3rd century BC palace, believed to have been Cleopatra's royal quarters. On another narrow branch of the island there was a small Temple of Isis which had at its entrance a life-size granite statue representing a shaven-headed Egyptian priest of the goddess Isis carrying a jar topped with an image of Osiris.{{cite web |title=Priest with Osiris-Canopus object study |trans-title= |url=https://www.franckgoddio.org/fileadmin/pics/3_5_finds/documents/Franck_Goddio_Priest.pdf |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Franck Goddio Underwater Archaeologist |publisher= |quote=}} A pair of granite sphinxes flanked the statue, one of which had the head of Cleopatra's father.{{Cite web |title=Sphinx from Alexandria's Portus Magnus object study |url=https://www.franckgoddio.org/fileadmin/pics/3_5_finds/documents/Franck_Goddio_Sphinx.pdf |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Franck Goddio Underwater Archaeologist}}
Between the branches on the eastern side of the island there was a small port with docks. Here there was a series of 60 columns, each 1 metre in diameter and 7 metres in length, made of red Egyptian granite and topped with a decorated crown. Ancient paintings indicate that the columns acted as the ceremonial gateway to the island.{{cite web |url=http://www.uwphotographyguide.com/diving-cleopatras-palace |title=Diving into Egyptian History: The Rediscovery of Cleopatra's Sunken Palace and Diving it Today |last1=Atif |first1=Wessam |website=Underwater Photography Guide |date=20 November 2013 |access-date=16 August 2015 }} The wreck of a 30-metre long 1st century BC or 1st century AD Roman ship has been identified in the vicinity of the port.{{cite journal |last1=Sandrin |first1=Patrice |last2= Belov |first2=Alexander |last3=Fabre |first3=David |date=March 2013 |title=The Roman Shipwreck of Antirhodos Island in the Portus Magnus of Alexandria, Egypt |journal=International Journal of Nautical Archaeology |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=44–59 |doi= 10.1111/j.1095-9270.2012.00363.x|s2cid=162781243 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2013IJNAr..42...44S }} Evidence from a hole in the ship's hull suggests that it could have sunk after being rammed by another boat.
The site of Mark Antony's uncompleted palace, the Timonium, has also been located opposite Antirhodos on the Poseidium Peninsula. Other finds include a colossal stone head thought to be of Cleopatra's son Caesarion,{{Cite web |title=Colossal head of Caesarion object study |url=https://www.franckgoddio.org/fileadmin/pics/3_5_finds/documents/Franck_Goddio_Caesarion.pdf |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=Franck Goddio Underwater Archaeologist}}{{cite web|title=The sites in Egypt|url=https://www.ieasm.institute/egypt.php?lang=en|website=The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology}} and a huge quartzite block with an engraving of a pharaoh and an inscription indicating that it depicts Seti I, father of Ramses II. Some of the pharaonic objects on the site had been brought from Heliopolis by the Ptolemaic rulers and re-used to construct their buildings. The remains on the island do not seem to date from later than the Ptolemaic period, suggesting the palace may have been abandoned soon after Cleopatra's death and the absorption of Egypt into the Roman Republic.
File:A Plan of Alexandria - Pococke Richard - 1743.jpg|1743 map of Alexandria showing "R. Supposed site of the isle Antirrhodes"
File:Statue fragment of Cleopatra VII - Royal Ontario Museum.jpg|Bust of Cleopatra currently on display at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. The bust is believed to have been discovered at the royal palace on Antirhodos.
File:HermesPtolemy.jpg|White marble torso of Hermes discovered on the southern branch of the Island of Antirhodos. (Grand Palais exhibition, 2006)
References
= Citations =
{{Reflist}}
= Bibliography =
- University of Oxford Live 2021, [https://livestream.com/oxuni/goddio "The Portus Magnus of Alexandria: 25 years of underwater archaeological research"] lecture by Franck Goddio
- {{cite book |last= Puchstein |first= Otto |date= 1894 |title=Paulys Realencyclopädie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft |trans-title=Pauly's Real Encyclopedia of Classical Antiquity |language=de |location= Stuttgart |entry=Antirrodos |volume=1&2 }}
- {{cite journal |author= |title=Herrscher der bewohnten Erde |trans-title=Ruler of the Inhabited Earth |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-8810524.html |journal=Der Spiegel |issue=44 |date=27 October 1997 |access-date=23 July 2015 }}
- {{cite book |editor-first1=Franck |editor-last1=Goddio |editor-first2=David |editor-last2=Fabre |title=Egypt's Sunken Treasures (Exhibition Catalogue) |publisher=Prestel |location=Munich |year=2008 |edition=2nd |isbn=978-3-7913-3970-2}}
- {{cite book |editor-first1=Damian |editor-last1=Robinson |editor-first2=Andrew |editor-last2=Wilson |title=Alexandria and the North-Western Delta |location=Oxford |year=2010 |publisher=Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology |isbn=978-1-905905-14-0}}
- {{cite book |last1=Bernard |first1=A. |last2=Bernand |first2=E. |last3=Yoyotte |first3=J. |last4=Goddio |first4=F. |title=Alexandria, the submerged royal quarters |publisher=Periplus Publishing |location=London |year=1998 |isbn=1-902699-00-9}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
Category:Geography of ancient Egypt