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CategoriesAncient ports
Harbours, quays and anchorages that moved cargo before the coastline shifted.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient port
Archaic Greek to Byzantine (6th c. BCE–7th c. CE) · Greek (Cyrenean) / Roman
Rock-cut shipsheds and breakwater on Phycus headland north of Cyrene.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Roman to Byzantine (2nd–7th c. CE) · Roman (Cyrenaica)
Dune suburb of Hadrianopolis with fish vats and submerged mole.
🇱🇾 Libya · Fortress
Roman to Byzantine (3rd–7th c. CE) · Roman (Tripolitana/Syrte)
Salt-pan watchtower south of Boreum with sebkha causeway.
🇧🇩 Bangladesh · Ancient city
Chalcolithic → Iron Age 500 BCE–300 CE · Iron Age Gangetic (NBPW)
Wari-Bateshwar — twin-village Early Historic port-city (Chalcolithic levels, Iron Age 500 BCE–300 CE) 70 km NE Dhaka, discovered 1933 Hanif Pathan, excavated 2000–10 Rahman.
🇪🇬 Egypt · Submerged site
Late Period to Byzantine (6th c BCE – 8th c CE) · Egyptian / Greek
Legendary port of entry to Egypt before Alexandria, submerged after earthquake/liquefaction 6th–8th century CE, rediscovered 2000 by Franck Goddio (IEASM) with stele of Nectanebo I, temples of…
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient city
Pharaonic to Byzantine (New Kingdom – 7th c CE; Ptolemaic port 300 BCE) · Egyptian / Ptolemaic / Roman / Byzantine
Egypt's western gate on Mediterranean lagoon, Paraetonium began as Ramesses II's western chain fort, then great Ptolemaic lagoon port with Alexander–Cleopatra stopover tradition; l...
🇯🇲 Jamaica · Submerged site
Early Modern (1518–1692) · English colonial / pirate
Infamous pirate capital of Caribbean ('Wickedest City in the World'), 2/3 slid into harbour by liquefaction in 1692 earthquake + tsunami, preserving 17th c storehouses under sediment - 'Pompeii of…
🇪🇷 Eritrea · Ancient city
Axumite (1st c BCE – 7th c CE; Adulis port 1st c CE Periplus) · Axumite / South Arabian / Greco-Roman trade
Axumite Mediterranean port in Zula Bay where Paribeni and Sundström found Axumite church (5th c), Roman wine amphorae and glass, linking Axum to Roman trade; Periplus harbour descr...
🇲🇱 Mali · Ancient city
Trans-Saharan (c. 600–1300 CE; peak 9th–12th c as Kawkaw) · Songhai–Berber (Gao empire; Almoravid links)
Old Gao's eastern port suburb Gao-Saney with merchant quarter and cemetery of 11th c Arabic stelae (spirals, Kufic) documenting Islamisation and gold trade to Sijilmasa; stelae mar...
🇪🇬 Egypt · Ancient port
Old Kingdom 4th Dynasty (2620–2500 BCE, Sneferu–Khufu) · Old Kingdom Egyptian
Southern annex of the world's oldest harbour (Khufu) with 8 rock-cut galleries storing mortised cedar boats and 150 anchors, plus Merer papyrus dump. South mole stub now -1 m.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Punic to Roman (5th c BCE – 5th c CE) · Punic / Roman (Tripolitania–Cyrenaica border)
Lonely Syrtis salt post at Syrtis Major's southernmost bay, Paliurus marks the dangerous coastal road's water point between Leptis and Berenice; still salt flats.
🇱🇾 Libya · Fortress
Ptolemaic to Byzantine (3rd c BCE – 7th c CE) · Ptolemaic / Roman / Byzantine (Cyrenaica–Marmarica)
Desert–lagoon frontier tower at Marmarica's Cyrenaica edge, Boreum guarded the coastal road's last water before Egyptian desert and lagoon fishery.
🇱🇾 Libya · Ancient city
Hadrianic to Byzantine (125 CE – 7th c CE) · Roman / Byzantine (Cyrenaica)
Hadrian's Cyrenaican harbour foundation with mole, basilica and cisterns, linking Pentapolis coastal road; Synesius epistles mention bishop.
🇲🇽 Mexico · Ancient port
Classic · Maya/Andean
Isla Cerritos — offshore port island with dike.
