Well-Preserved Egyptian Pleasure Boat Found Off Alexandria's Coast

A well-preserved Egyptian pleasure vessel has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, near the underwater site of the temple of Isis on the island of Antirhodos. According to Franck Goddio of the University of Oxford and the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, this is the first time such a vessel has been recovered.

Dated to the first half of the first century A.D., the vessel resembles an Egyptian pleasure boat described by the first-century B.C. Greek historian Strabo, who noted that these boats were used by the royal court for festivals and revelry.

Goddio referenced a depiction of an Egyptian pleasure boat in the Palestrina mosaic, showing a smaller vessel carrying noblemen hunting hippopotamuses. The newly discovered boat measures approximately 115 feet long, much larger than the one depicted in the mosaic, with a flat bow and a round stern, suggesting it was maneuverable in shallow waters.

Its size indicates it may have required more than 20 rowers. Goddio proposed that the boat could have been part of the navigium Isidis, a naval ceremony celebrating the goddess Isis, associated with a richly decorated vessel that represented the solar barque of Isis, mistress of the sea.