We have an intact city, frozen in time." With those dramatic words, French underwater explorer Franck Goddio announced the discovery of Herakleion, the long-lost Egyptian port city often mentioned in classical writings and described by Herodotus. He visited it in 450 B.C. and toured a temple dedicated to the mythic strongman Hercules.
Scouring the murky waters off Alexandria using the latest scientific instruments, Goddio's 35-man team had already landed two prizes. Working with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, it located another lost city, Menouthis, and the wreckage of Napoleon's flagship, L'Orient, destroyed by Britain's Admiral Nelson two centuries ago in...