Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Monday instructed officials to assess the project's feasibility and present, within a month, a plan for either underwater viewing sites or the recovery and exhibition of artefacts on land.
During a cabinet meeting attended by the ministers of tourism and antiquities, defence officials, and heritage authorities, Madbouly called for fast-tracking the vision, highlighting the untapped tourism potential of Abu Qir Bay—home to the ancient cities of Heracleion and Canopus.
According to a cabinet statement, the proposed museum could follow models in other countries with underwater access routes or focus on retrieving artefacts for conventional museum display.
Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy said a full proposal would be submitted within weeks, identifying which sites might be opened to divers and which are suitable for excavation, in accordance with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) regulations.
Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Egypt was working with UNESCO and other partners to study legal and technical frameworks for such a museum noting ongoing missions continue to uncover submerged sites.
Lost cities beneath the sea
The ruins of Heracleion and Canopus lie roughly 7 kilometres off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast.
Once thriving ports before Alexandria’s founding in 331 BCE, they played key roles in regional trade and taxation.
Discovered only in recent decades, the cities yielded statues, temple fragments, and religious sanctuaries.
Archaeologists believe they sank into the sea in the fourth century BCE following a catastrophic event, though the exact cause remains unknown.
In September 2023, an Egyptian–French team led by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology discovered a sanctuary for Aphrodite and a cache of artefacts from the Amun Gereb Temple in Thonis-Heracleion.
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