The wreckage of a fleet of ancient Macedonian ships was discovered 300 meters underwater near the Lebanese southern city of Tyre. The announcement was made in a statement Tuesday by Head of the Lebanese Union of Professional Divers, Mohammad Al-Siraj.
According to the statement, the Union suspects that the wreckage could have been a result of none other than the historical Siege of Tyre by Alexander the Great, which happened around 300 B.C.
Via Lebanese Union of Professional Divers
Alexander the Great tried to seize the city in order to build a road and to campaign against the Persians. Al-Siraj suspects that the fleet could have been carrying the necessary stones to construct the road, which could have caused the ships to sink due to the weight and stormy weather conditions.
In addition to the finding of 11 ships, there were also various artifacts of broken pottery scattered around the site, which suggests that a storm could have caused the wreck, according to Jafaar Fadlallah, a professor of archaeology at the Lebanese University, via The Daily Star.
“We know that Greek ships traveled in groups of 11, and the quantity of pottery suggests that this was a full group of ships,” Fadlallah said.
Al-Siraj has commissioned the Directorate General of Antiquities to begin excavating and documenting the findings; however, this process will take a considerable amount of time.
“On land, you can work whenever you want, but underwater, you can only work for periods of two hours at a time, so this work will take a long time,” Fadlallah explained.
According to Fadlallah, exploration of the site began about three months ago, but that was the shorter part of the process, whereas the documentation will take much longer.
Regardless, the site is a notable find and is yet another relic of history in the southern region of our country that has stood the test of time.
