Ancient Egyptian treasures, including fruit preserved for 2,400 years, have been uncovered at a historical site.

Among the discoveries at the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion off Egypt’s coast are Greek ceramics and wicker baskets filled with fruit dating back over 2,400 years.

Thonis-Heracleion was once Egypt’s busiest Mediterranean port until the founding of Alexandria by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE.

A team from the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology (IEASM), led by French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, has been exploring the site for years. Their 2021 mission, in collaboration with Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, uncovered fascinating findings in the Bay of Aboukir, according to IEASM's recent statement.

At the submerged city’s northeast entrance canal, the team discovered a large Greek burial site, complete with lavish funerary offerings from the early fourth century BCE, IEASM reported.

The tumulus measures approximately 60 meters (197 feet) in length and 8 meters (26 feet) in width, and appears as an island encircled by channels, according to IEASM.

“We discovered signs of burned material everywhere,” stated Goddio in the IEASM report. “The area must have hosted grand ceremonies. It seems to have been sealed off for centuries, as no objects from later than the early fourth century BCE were found, even though the city thrived for hundreds of years beyond that period.”

Among the discovered offerings, including rare imported Greek ceramics, archaeologists made an incredible find: wicker baskets still containing grape seeds and doum fruit, the latter of which is often associated with tombs, according to IEASM.

“These items have remained undisturbed underwater for 2,400 years, possibly because they were either placed in an underground chamber or buried shortly after being offered,” stated IEASM.

The find “provides a clear indication of the Greek merchants and mercenaries who once lived in Thonis-Heracleion, a city that controlled access to Egypt at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the Nile,” according to IEASM.

During the late Pharaonic era, Greeks were permitted to settle in Thonis-Heracleion, where they built their own temples near the grand Temple of Amun.

However, several earthquakes and tidal waves triggered the collapse of a 110-square-kilometer area of the Nile Delta, submerging both Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus. IEASM rediscovered Thonis-Heracleion in 2000 and Canopus in 1999.

During their 2021 excavation, Goddio and his team uncovered a submerged Ptolemaic galley in another part of the city, which had sunk after being struck by massive blocks from the Temple of Amun, according to IEASM.

The galley had been moored in the canal that ran along the temple's southern side when the building was destroyed in a “cataclysmic event” during the second century BCE, as reported by IEASM.

The falling temple blocks helped preserve the sunken galley by pinning it to the canal’s floor, which later filled with debris. Archaeologists located the galley using an advanced “prototype sub-bottom profiler,” a technology that can analyze the sea floor and detect geological layers a few meters beneath it, according to IEASM.

“Fast galleys from this era are incredibly rare,” said Goddio. “The only other known example is the Punic Marsala Ship (235 BCE). Prior to this find, no Hellenistic ships of this type had been identified by archaeologists.”