Marina, also Marina El Alamein ( ar, مارينا العلمين ), ancient ''Leukaspis'' or ''Antiphrae'', is an upscale resort town catering mainly to the

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

ian upper class. It is located on the northern coast of

, with an long beach, about away from

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, in the El Alamein area.

Archaeological site

The archaeological site of Marina El-Alamein lies about 5 kilometers to the east of the modern town of El-Alamein (96 kilometers west of

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

). It encompasses extensive remains of a harbor city from the

Greco-Roman period The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were dir ...

, which functioned from the 2nd century BC to the 6th century AD. Leukaspis was a large port town, with a population around 15,000. It was probably an important trading center between Egypt and

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Suda ...

, and appears to have been a major center for Cretian imports. The settlement was destroyed in 365, when an earthquake off the coast of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

created a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

. The town was not rebuilt, partially due to the crumbling state of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. Leukaspis was lost until 1986, when a group of engineers who were building roads in Marina revealed ancient houses and tombs. of surrounding land was designated an archeological area, and excavations began in the 1990s. Prior to the site's discovery, the port area of the settlement was destroyed to make a man-made lagoon for a resort. The area of archaeological investigations and conservation work extends about a kilometer along the sea coast and 550 meters inland. The archaeological and architectural research revealed the layout of the ancient city; several areas were distinguished. In the center lay the main square surrounded by porticoes, as well as Hellenistic and Roman baths and a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's Forum (Roman), forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building ...

. The neighboring residential quarters were densely built-up. The port infrastructure (now destroyed) and storerooms were located to the north. A vast necropolis and a second (early Christian) basilica were discovered in the southern part of the site. The necropolis functioned from the end of the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. It is quite well-preserved and features an extraordinary variety of funerary monuments. Among the several dozen tombs of different form, there are types which had not been found in Egypt before or, if they had, were very badly preserved. In 2010, the Egyptian government started to open up Leukaspis as an open-air museum in mid-September 2010, with the aim to increase tourism to Marina, and nearby El-Alamein and

Taposiris Magna Taposiris Magna is a city established by Pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus between 280 and 270 BC. The name means "great tomb of Osiris", which Plutarch identifies with an Egyptian temple in the city. After Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 3 ...

History of research

Salvage excavations organized by the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities began in 1986. From 1988, Polish-Egyptian conservation expeditions, directed by Włodzimierz Bentkowski (1988–1989) and Jarosław Dobrowolski (1990–1993), worked at the site. In 1995, the Conservation Mission started, headed first by Stanisław Medeksza, and then Rafał Czerner from the Faculty of Architecture of the

Wrocław University of Science and Technology Wrocław University of Science and Technology ( pl, Politechnika Wrocławska, founded as german: link=no, Technische Hochschule Breslau) is a technological university in Wrocław, Poland. With buildings and infrastructures dispersed throughout t ...

. The project is conducted under the auspices of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw (PCMA UW) in cooperation with the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities. Since 1987, the PCMA UW has also carried out archaeological excavations – Wiktor A. Daszewski directed them until 2011. He was succeeded by Krzysztof Jakubiak, who in 2019, after the reframing of the project, became the director of an interdisciplinary project combining conservation and archaeological work.

Tourism

The resort is a gated community only accessible to those who own property inside or have been authorized to enter by a property owner. Spanning almost , this beach resort is split into seven different sections named Marina 1–7. Limestone villas and chalets with landscaped greenery characterize this exclusive part of the Middle East.

Historical overlay

The resort was the site of a bustling Greco-Roman

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

two thousand years ago. The area was ruined during that period by a

that resulted from an earthquake that hit

to the northwest. File:Sentinel-2_L1C_image_on_2020-06-18.jpg, Satellite image Image:Marina egypt haddara.jpg, Beach at Marina Image:Limestone chalets.JPG, Limestone chalets in Marina Image:Porto marina 2.JPG, Venetian canals in Porto Marina. Image:Porto Marina 4.JPG, Hotels of Porto Marina. Image:Porto Marina (El Alamein).jpg, Porto Marina. Image:Marina sea bridge.jpg, A Sea bridge in Marina.

References

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External links