Archaeologists find ancient harbor swallowed by the sea near Cleopatra's temple

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of the harbor on Sept. 18. It was found at the Temple of Taposiris Magna, about 30 miles west of Alexandria.

The temple, built in the Ptolemaic era, was dedicated to Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife.

Though the temple from the 3rd century B.C. was constructed two centuries before Cleopatra ruled, it was still in use by the time she took power. 

Officials say the harbor was connected to the temple and directly linked to the Mediterranean Sea. The harbor was protected by coral reefs, archaeologists found.

"Archaeologists also found stone and metal anchors of various sizes, along with large numbers of amphorae dating back to the Ptolemaic period," the statement, translated from Arabic to English, added.

"Research further showed that the ancient shoreline lies about 4 kilometers from today's coast."

The discovery came a year after a similar excavation at the site yielded foundation deposits and a variety of artifacts, including funerary and ritual objects.

"The discoveries indicated that the temple walls were constructed in the 1st century B.C., with remains of an earlier Greek temple from the 4th century B.C. that was destroyed between the 2nd century B.C. and the beginning of the Roman era," the ministry noted.

The discovery of the harbor is one of many recent archaeological finds across Egypt.