ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Monday, November 4, 1996               TAG: 9611040126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL   PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT
SOURCE: Associated Press

DIVING WHERE CLEOPATRA TROD

SCUBA-WEARING ARCHAEOLOGISTS have uncovered parts of ancient Alexandria, where pharoahs once ruled.

Hours of diving in the murky Mediterranean and exhaustive mapping have revealed parts of the 2,000-year-old city where the love affair between Antony and Cleopatra took place.

French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio said Sunday he had found the ruins of the ancient court of Alexandria 16 to 20 feet down in Alexandria's harbor.

Goddio, who surveyed the site with 16 divers and antiquities specialists, said it contains the ruins of Cleopatra's palace and Mark Antony's home and temple when the Roman warrior was in Egypt.

``It was fascinating,'' Goddio said. ``We were touching stones and columns and thinking Cleopatra had touched them.''

He said they found thousands of artifacts, most from the Ptolemaic period from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C. The era is named for a general of Alexander the Great who ordered the city's construction in his leader's name. The artifacts include granite columns, statues, wine amphoras, paved streets and piers.

Goddio said the researchers found ``a beautiful harbor protected by a long pier that is still in good condition after 2,000 years - but it's under water.''

``Oh, look at that!'' he shouted aboard their boat, pointing to granite columns and cobbled pavement from Cleopatra's palace seen through an underwater camera. His T-shirt said ``Cleopatra'' in hieroglyphics.

Alexandria's history began in 332 B.C. when Alexander the Great, traveling along the coast from Syria, saw the magnificent harbor and decided it would be the site for a city.

At its height, the city was filled with palaces, temples, gardens and fountains, and was home to the renowned Alexandria Library, making it a commercial and cultural center that rivaled Rome and Athens. Its decline came long after the rule of Antony and Cleopatra ended with their suicides in 30 B.C.

By the Middle Ages, most of ancient Alexandria was gone - swallowed by the sea, damaged by fires, earthquakes and tidal waves.

This year, archaeologists announced the discovery off Alexandria of the Pharos lighthouse, built 2,200 years ago and one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Goddio, 49, said the expedition's major contribution is a map of the ancient city, including the Royal Quarter where statues, sphinxes, columns, piers and paved areas were built.

``Every map made of Alexandria was a matter of a guess,'' said Fawzy Fakharani, an archaeologist with Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities who was involved in the project. ``Now we have an accurate survey, accurate to the inch.''

LENGTH: Medium:   61 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. In Alexandria's harbor, a diver examines a find from
          the reign of Pharoah Apries, whose dynasty lasted from 670 to 589 
          B.C. color.