The Discovery of the Thalamegos: Unearthing an Ancient Egyptian Pleasure Boat скачать в хорошем качестве

The Discovery of the Thalamegos: Unearthing an Ancient Egyptian Pleasure Boat

During Franck Goddio's 2025 excavation season in the Port of the Royal Island of Antirhodos, in the great Portus Magnus of Alexandria, the IEASM discovered, for the first time ever, the well-preserved timbers of a shipwreck that was one of Egypt’s famous ancient pleasure barges. The boat must have originally measured 35 meters in length and 7 meters in breadth. The ship's design was intended to maximize its width to accommodate a central pavilion. Even the ancient author Strabo described the boat when he visited Alexandria around 29-25 BC: “They hold feasts in cabin-boats (thalamagoi), which they use to enter the thick of the cyami and the shade of the leaves." Franck Goddio can also imagine a ritual use of the boat given the fact that it was found very close to the team’s excavation site of the temple of Isis on Antirhodos Island. Although research on the wreck is still in its early stages, it already promises to offer a fascinating glimpse into life, religion, luxury and pleasure on the waterways of early Roman Egypt.