Granite pylon lifted out of the Mediterranean Sea off Alexandria
Egyptian archaeologists on Thursday lifted an ancient granite temple pylon out of the waters of the Mediterranean, where it had lain for centuries as part of the palace complex of Cleopatra, now lay strewn on the seabed in the harbor of Alexandria, the second largest city of Egypt.
The pylon, which once stood at the entrance to a temple of Isis, was discovered by a Greek expedition in 1998. The temple is at least 2,050 years old, and the pylon was cut from a single slab of red granite quarried in Aswan, some 700 miles to the south. It is to be the centerpiece of an ambitious underwater museum planned by Egypt to showcase the sunken city, which is believed to have been toppled into the sea by earthquakes in the 4th century.
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