Egypt - Alexandria - Maréa

Overview of archaeological site and purpose of excavation

The site identified in Marea by Mahmud Bey el Falaki in his 1866 Description of Egypt is one of the few examples of harbour cities bordering Lake Mariut still intact and accessible to archaeological study.

Located approximately forty kilometres southwest of Alexandria, near the village Huwariya, the Marea site spans over 25 hectares along the southern bank of Lake Mariut, where the lake’s basin shrinks to less than one kilometre in width.

It was only starting in 1977 that the site identified in Marea became the focus of archaeological excavation. Until 1981, they were carried out by a team from the University of Alexandria, headed by F. El-Fakharani and are focused on the harbour zone. All of the vestiges uncovered, dating back to the 5th to 7th centuries AD, illustrate a harbour city with considerable capacity, significant storage facilities and very high-quality public buildings. The discoveries lay testament to intensive occupation on the site, during the Byzantine Era.

Since July 2003, the Centre for Alexandrian Studies has been carrying out work on the island around one hundred metres northeast of the city: topographical work, pedestrian and geophysical prospecting and archaeological excavation have made it possible, for instance, to uncover the general layout of the island and the existence of a large working craft quarter in the Greco-Roman Era.