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CategoriesAncient ports
Harbours, quays and anchorages that moved cargo before the coastline shifted.
🇬🇷 Greece · Buried city
Classical to Late Roman (333 BCE – 365 CE) · Greek / Hellenistic / Roman
333 BCE closed harbour of Phalasarna now stranded +6.6 m above sea by the AD 365 Crete earthquake — rock-cut basin and canal uplifted overnight.
🇬🇷 Greece · Submerged site
Archaic Greek to Late Medieval (700 BCE – 1428 CE) · Greek / Elean / Frankish / Venetian
Crusader Glarentza mint-port (1205–1428) built atop Classical Kyllene trireme harbour — submerged moles at −5 m under north walls mapped by marine geophysics.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Late Period to Late Antique (600 BCE – 400 CE) · Egyptian / Greek / Ptolemaic / Roman
Mendes twin capital — Mendesian Branch harbour 400x150 m with 120 perfume workshops and 70 kilns, now 2 m sebkha.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Predynastic to Late Antique (3300 BCE – 400 CE) · Egyptian / Thinite / New Kingdom / Late
Osiris mysteries canal — Shunet el-Zebib 2700 BCE enclosure (oldest standing 11 m walls) with sacred lake harbour 400x100 m for barque procession.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Predynastic to Late Antique (3200 BCE – 600 CE) · Egyptian / Ptolemaic / Roman
Fayum canal capital — Bahr Yussef harbour 300x100 m now desert sebkha 3 km from shrunken Lake Moeris (40,000 papyri).
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Middle Kingdom to New Kingdom (1780–1100 BCE) · Egyptian / Hyksos Canaanite / Minoan / Ramesside
Hyksos capital 1650 BCE — Pelusiac harbour 500x300 m for 300 ships with Minoan bull-leaping fresco palace, silted 4 m.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Buried city
Classical to Byzantine (400 BCE – 800 CE) · Lycian / Greek / Roman / Jewish / Christian
Myra's sea-gate where St Paul changed ships — Hadrian Plakoma granary beside 350 m basin now 2.5 km inland from delta silt.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Ptolemaic to Late Roman (305 BCE – 400 CE) · Egyptian / Greek / Ptolemaic / Roman
Fayum island harbour — Soknopaios crocodile temple dromos 400 m to lake harbour 200x100 m now 2 km from receded Birket Qarun.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Buried city
Archaic to Late Antique (10th c. BCE – 15th c. CE) · Carian / Lycian / Greek / Roman / Byzantine
Carian border port now 8 km inland — 10th c. BCE harbour silted by Dalyan delta and Iztuzu spit after 200 BCE, with intact mooring rings and theatre.
🇮🇹 Italy · Submerged site
Phoenician to Late Antique (800 BCE – 600 CE) · Phoenician / Punic / Roman / Nuragic
8th c. BCE Nora Stone Phoenician colony — 120 m quay at −3 m off Capo di Pula isthmus with 7 wrecks at −8 m.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Predynastic to Medieval (5000 BCE – 1000 CE) · Egyptian / Greek / Roman / Coptic
Thoth capital 2.5 km enclosure — Bahr Yussef-Nile confluence harbour 400x80 m for ibis mummies and Book of Dead papyri.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Buried city
Predynastic to Late Antique (4000 BCE – 400 CE) · Egyptian Predynastic / Early Dynastic / Saite / Ptolemaic
Wadjet cobra city — Early Dynastic palace 3400 BCE and Sebennytic harbour 500x200 m now sebkha at +2 m.
🇮🇱 Israel · Tell
Middle Bronze Age through Crusader (c.2000 BCE–640 CE); MB Canaanite → Phoenician (Siky) → Assyrian province → Persian–Hellenistic Phoenician Dor · MB Canaanite → Iron I Siky/Phoenician → Phoenician (Tyre) → Perso-Phoenician province → Hellenistic
Phoenician purple-dye port (c.2000 BCE–640 CE) — 20 ha Carmel headland tell with Iron I Wenamun harbour and mole (Stern).
🇲🇹 Malta · Ancient port
Bronze Age (1500–800 BCE) use phase; ruts cut in Upper Coralline Limestone (Miocene) plateau · Maltese Bronze Age Tarxien–Ġgantija culture
Bronze Age limestone sled grooves 1.4 m gauge leading into sea — claimed Atlantis pulley-rail way, actually quarry sleds 1500–800 BCE.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Buried city
Iron Age Lycian to Byzantine (800 BCE – 700 CE) · Lycian / Greek / Roman / Byzantine
Capital port of Lycia — 64 CE Neronian lighthouse and Hadrian granary beside 400 m harbour now 600 m inland behind dunes.
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Archaic to Byzantine (800 BCE – 700 CE) · Argive Greek / Carian / Hellenistic / Roman
Carian fishopolis — 120 m agora stoa now −3 m under Güllük Gulf with red marble quarries and isthmus lagoon.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Bronze Age to Hellenistic (1570 – 300 BCE) · Hyksos / New Kingdom Egyptian / Late Period
15th c. BCE Thutmose III naval arsenal town on Canopic delta sandbar — quay now –1.5 to –3 m under Idku lagoon fish farms.
🇬🇪 Georgia · Submerged site
Colchian Early Iron to Hellenistic (c. 6th – 2nd c. BCE) · Colchian / East Greek Milesian
Colchian dunes village and Greek emporion — timber quay –1 to –3 m in surf and 300-grave cemetery 120 m reclaimed by sea since 5th c. BCE.
🇨🇾 Cyprus · Submerged site
Mycenaean to Ptolemaic (13th c. BCE – 312 BCE) · Mycenaean / Phoenician / Cypriot Cypro-Classical
Phoenician copper harbour whose Astarte temple and shipshed ramp lie –1 to –4 m under modern Larnaca bay fill.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan · Ancient city
Hellenistic 4th–3rd c BCE → Kushan 1st–3rd c CE · Greco-Bactrian Oxus port — Alexander → Kushan
Kampyr Tepe Oxus — Greco-Bactrian Oxus port fortress (4th c BCE Alexander → Kushan 2nd c CE) on Amu Darya north bank 30 km west Termez, excavated 1960s–2000s by E.V. Rtveladze (Uzbek Academy).
🇹🇷 Turkey · Submerged site
Archaic to Ottoman (631 BCE – 1923 CE) · Ionian Greek / Pontic / Roman / Byzantine / Seljuk
Milesian 756 BCE via Sinope — 180 m eastern mole at −2 m off Trabzon Ortahisar where Xenophon wintered 30 days.
🇬🇹 Guatemala · Pyramid
Maya Classic (Late Classic palace) · Maya (Highland-Pasión portage traders)
Maya water-palace city Cancuén (400–800 CE): 230×150 m largest Maya palace (170 rooms) with attached shrine-pyramids on Pasión River, sacked c.800 CE with elite massacre in cistern.
🇬🇪 Georgia · Submerged site
Colchian Iron Age to Byzantine (6th c. BCE – 6th c. CE) · Colchian / Milesian Greek
Royal Colchian Aeëtes' capital — ashlar quay –2 to –5 m under modern Poti port fill at Rioni mouth.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient port
Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty (c. 2620–2500 BCE) · Ancient Egyptian (Old Kingdom)
Wadi al-Jarf on the Gulf of Suez is the world's oldest harbour, 4th Dynasty c. 2600 BCE, Khufu's Red Sea port for Sinai copper and turquoise expeditions.
