Ancient Greek shipwreck discovered by divers, and its full of treasure

A team of divers has stumbled across an ancient shipwreck full of treasure within the Bay of Abou Qir located near Alexandria.

The discovery was announced by the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), and according to reports, the ancient Greek shipwreck dates back to the Ptolemaic era (305 to 30 BC). The team of divers detected the ship with a prototype sonar ray, and when they approached, the divers noticed it was under approximately 15 feet of clay.

According to Franck Goddio, the president of IEASM, the ship sank in the depths after large blocks from the temple of Amun fell onto it. Notably, Goddio and his fellow colleagues believe that the ship was originally docked at a wharf before a cataclysmic event triggered the destruction of the Amun temple. Furthermore, the blocks that crushed the ship pinned it to the bottom of the canal and simultaneously provided it with the correct conditions to be preserved for such a long amount of time.

As for the treasures that were found, they can be seen in the above tweet by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, which writes that the team of divers also found a Greek funerary area that dates back to the beginning of the fourth century BC. It should be noted how rare of a find this discovery is, as BGR notes via the Greek Reporter, there have only one ship found from this period of time - the Punic Marsala Ship from approximately 235 BC.

Recently, the Colombian military released a selection of images of the sunken San Jose Galleon that was sunk by the British navy in 1708 throughout the War of the Spanish Succession. That ship and its cargo of gold, silver, crockery, cannons, pots, and more is estimated to be worth around $17 billion. According to former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, the 64-cannon San Jose Galleon is the "most precious treasure ever found in the history of the world".

More on that story below.

• Read more: Shipwreck found with $17 billion worth of precious treasure aboard