The underwater archaeology is one of the modern sciences, not more than two centuries, where the permanent interest was concentrated on the underground monuments, until the beginning of the twentieth century where the interest of the underwater artifacts started upon the discovery of the remainder of the sunken ship near by "Anticthera" in Greece in 1900.

Egypt has a long history in the maritime life, contributed in marine technicality progress, plenty of scenes that assimilate river and marine life were found on the walls of tombs from old eras, also many of buried ships were founded in the desert near by the pyramids.
Sufficiency to know that Egypt had an old port on the Red Sea named "Saw". During the Grecian and Roman eras, number of ports on the Red Sea exceeded eight ports, Where In the east coast, there were more than fifteen ports.

What are the underwater artifacts?
They’re monuments wiped out by water whether seas, rivers, or lakes in result of increasing the level of water surface, the falling of continent coasts ,and old ships which were sank in water for different reasons whether wars, winds, tornadoes, storms, or hitting rocks.
In Egypt, underwater artifacts whether marine monuments such as ships, harbors, and port establishments, or civil monuments which were sunk in water as the result of earthquakes; the best example for that is the old lighthouse of Alexandria, which was exposed to several earthquakes, the last was in 1375, which destroyed the lighthouse.

The beginning of the underwater archaeology work in Egypt
This science was known by the mid nineties in Egypt, which motivated the supreme council of Antiquities to establish a special administration for submerged monuments by the end of 1996; even this council is more than a hundred years old. The credit for this returned to the picking up of artifacts from the sea near by Qaitbey’s Fort which named Al Fanar place in 1995, also to the discovery of the east Harbor in 1996

It was believed to be the first work done in this field. but some are trying to correct this date going back to the year 1963 where the "Isis" Faria was found in the same place, but the truth, is it started earlier than this when an engineer named "Maval" discovered in 1908, the remainder of an old pier while working in the Dekhila Gulf

In 1910, “Gaston Jondet” French engineer discovered piers alike while expanding Alexandria western Harbor; he also discovered the remainder of wave barrier, which closes the Anfoushy Gulf.

The chance had played an important role in discovering the first place for submerged monuments in Egypt. a British pilot had noticed the remainder of a sunk ship while flying above Abu Qeir Gulf. Prince Omar Toson was motivated to finance the search and the pick up in this area, he hired a diver, and in May 5, 1933, the diver went to the mentioned area and he found a head made of marble for Alexander the great, now sited in the Graeco – Roman Museum During the summer of the same year, the prince and his assistant performed some explorations, led to the discovery of some underwater artifacts

Prince Omar Toson had noticed that the place where he found the statue of Alexander's head represents a temple and the place in its east side represents a residential city, when he compared this discovery with the old sources, he connected these places by Minous city. He was able to identify Heraclium city on the map, which he published in 1934

Then, in the sixties Kamal Abu El Saadat was the hero, he was one of the divers , he visited the eastern harbor and Abu Qeir Gulf, he noticed in 1961 the existence of stone remainder at the versant of Qaitbey’s fort, and in the Selsela area east of the tip of the old Lokhias

In June 1962, with the help of the Egyptian navy forces, he lifted a life size statue of a Roman man made of granite without a head and feet from selsela area. In the same year, he found a huge statue for a woman made of granite on her chest Isis's knot which had made specialists believe that it’s a statue of the Goddess "Isis Faria". Abu EL- Saadat continued his discoveries; he made two maps for the discovered places, and handed them over to the Graeco – Roman Museum.

-The first map included three places
1- The place at the versant of Qaitbey’s fort (Pharos) 2- The eastern harbor (Anti-Rohdes Island – a small port – several piers) 3- Selsela area in Shatby, where he found near the shore an old establishment covered by sand, sarcophagus, and currencies

-The second map was for Abu Qeir Gulf, where he specified the crashing places of several ships from Napoleons fleet, in addition to the two places known by Heraclium and Canobe, also the remainder of Nelson's Island

Abu El Saadat had continued his work during the seventies and eighties , where he noticed in Maamoura – east of Alexandria the existence of what he believed to be a wave barrier, and several anchorages, also he discovered several piers around Nelson's Island in Abu Qeir

During his life, he was an experienced guide for several missions that worked in the same field, especially marine archaeologist "Honor frost" the head of UNESCO mission to the place of Qaitbey’s fort in 1968 at that time, she made a preliminary map included seventeen monuments which were sunk next to the fort.

In 1983, Jacques Dumas and the French navy in coordination with the Egyptian navy and divers worked under the supervision of the Egyptian Archeological Authority. They discovered the head ship of Napoleon’s fleet "Orient" in depth of eleven meters, eight kms from the shore of Abu Qeir gulf. They had worked for three seasons, they found three more pieces, unfortunately after his death in 1985, the documents of domes had disappeared, but the locations of the ships are still known.

In 1986, the location of "Patriot" was specified, it was the search ship which accompanied the French attack against Egypt; it was drowned close to Agami.

The digging work was done upon the picking up of some guns, and soldier's equipments, clothes remainder, some parts of ships, and day-to-day life's tools, some currencies of gold, silver, and bronze. These pieces were exhibited in Qaitbey’s Fort museum after its restoration then transferred to the storage of the marine museum in Stanly to be exhibited after its construction.

By the beginning of the nineties, the submerged monuments field had witnessed a big interest from foreign missions and concerned scientific authorities, and they started working in searching and drilling for submerged monuments in Egypt.

1- The mission of the European institute for submerged monuments IEASM "French"
Mr. Frank Jodion the head of the institute since 1992, he was also the head of this mission. They discovered the sunken Royal district in the eastern harbor; they specified the old coastline, the old royal and commercial ports. They prepared the first detailed map for sunken places, and they lifted several monuments.
Also they worked in Abu Quir Gulf since 1996 where hundreds of golden, silver, and bronze currencies were founded, beside the discovery of several guns and metal anchorages. The mission was able to rediscover the sunken suburbs of canope in 1999, they located the "Heraclium" city in 2000, they lifted tens of different pieces of statues, currencies, accessories, and even though the mission includes a group of professional divers the work is completely under the supervision of Archeological inspectors in the underwater archaeology department.

2- The mission of the center of education for Alexandria CEA: French"
They had worked in Qaitbey's fort area since 1994 up until now. The chief of this mission is Dr-Jan Eve Am prier the director of the center – they discovered the sunken places across from the eastern side of the fort. The mission is doing the registration and the archeological survey for the north side area of the fort searching for the reminder of sunken ships to prepare a map for these ships and the marine routes and commerce for these ships.

3- The mission of the Institute of Antique INA "American"
They worked under the supervision of Mr. Douglas Haldine. They performed an archeological survey in the Red Sea coast, which led to the discovery of the remainder of a sunken ship from the eighteenth century in " Saadana" island south of Hurggada in 1995, then they discovered of the body of the ship, hundreds of the porcelain and crockery pots. The mission ended its work in this site by the end of 1998. In addition, they picked up samples of the ship burden, now transferred to the marine museum for restoration. This mission performed an archeological survey for the sunken sites in the north-west coast to prepare a map of these places.

4- The mission of the Hellenist institute "Greek"
They worked under the supervision of Mr. Harry Zalas The mission has performed an archeological survey since 1998 in the area from east of Selsela until Sidi Gaber area. They performed a taboo graphic research for the areas .they discovered some stone anchorages. The mission had contributed in the rediscovery of several monuments east of the tongue of Selsela, which belonged to the royal district in the Ptolemaic era.

5- The mission of Torino University "Italian"
The mission is working at Nelsons Island in Abu Qeir Gulf since 1998, under the supervision of Paolo Gallo – The Egyptology professor in Troino University. This mission had succeeded to discover some fences, cisterns, some crockery monuments that date back to the late pharaonic era, Grecian and Roman eras reaching the French attack against Egypt. The mission discovered a tomb dates back to the thirtieth dynasty also an army fort was founded, also some rounded mission which proofs these the island was converted to an army base in the beginning of the Ptolemaic era.

6- The mission of IN-SITY "Spanish"
The in-situ started working by performing an archeological survey for the south of the Red Sea coasts from Marsa Gawasis till Marsa Alam contributing with the general department of underwater archaeology in August 2001 where the purpose of the first survey was specifying the places where the rest of the monuments are. This survey led to specifying some monuments such as the Amphora's in Marsa Shograa and Marsa Alam, and the metal anchorages in Marsa Wady Gawasis, Mangrou, and Marsa Shograa.

7- The mission of the Hellenist committee for education and protection of the marine heritage "Greek"
This mission is working in coordination with the general department of underwater archaeology on the pier of Maria port south of Marriott Lake. They finished in two seasons the making of the first detailed map using equipments to identify the geographical location working with inspectors of the department.

8- The mission of the general department of underwater archaeology "Egyptian"
They are working at Maamoura Gulf; they discovered the remainder and the burden of Roman commercial ships plenty of crockery pieces date back to the first century till the sixth century, and also several stones which represent the remainder of marine establishment. The mission made a detailed map using geographical places and specifying equipments.

The Egyptian – British mission
South Hampton University had contributed with the specialist from the general department of underwater archaeology in crowning the good work and administration of employee of this department to be among the best scientists in that field.
This mission is working in Marriott's lake area and the main goals were
1- Specifying the archeological places on the lakes shores during the Hellenist, Roman, Byzantine eras where the marine activity for the lake was at peak
2- Performing an archeological survey in the south and north coasts of the lake.
3- Specifying the marine archeological places located on the lakes coast before its instant in results the architectural expanding.
4- Putting all these places on a map to execute the rule of stating the archeological assets in the area
Sixty-two archeological places were registered, the contributed mission has chosen only 12 places to perform a complete survey with more research and detailed registry for what they got from ports, docks, receptions, and other elements related to the marine activities

Alexandria eastern Harbor
 - The exploration in this area led to Identifying the old coastal line and finding some drowned pieces of stone
- Discovering "Anti Rohdes" Island and the remainder of the Island’s buildings also found inside the ship a group of currencies, glass pieces, and two gold rings
- Finding more than a thousand different artifacts such as ports of statues related to sphinx, posts, human statues, and parts of obelisks
- Submerged monuments field has witnessed lately a big interest from foreign missions and concerned scientific authorities in this field, which have the credit for these discoveries

Some of these missions
1- The mission of the European institute for submerged monuments IEASM "French"
2- The mission of the center for education of Alexandria CEA "French"
3- The mission of institute of marine antiques INA "American"
4- The mission of Torino University "Italian"
5- The mission of Hellenist institute "Greek"
6- The mission of IN-SITU
7- The mission of the Hellenist committee for studying and protecting the marine heritage
8- The mission of general department for submerged monuments

Alexandria eastern coast
- In 1997, the submerged monuments organization performed an archeological exploration in the Selsela area, which includes the reminder of some palaces from the old era and, group of posts and statues
- The committee of protecting marine monuments in coordination with the submerged monuments organization performed a survey extended about 3 k.m. from casino El Shatby to Sidi Gaber area, which led to the discovery of some monuments in Ibrahimia area

Abu Quer
In 1998, many monuments were discovered where the search for monuments related to the "Orient" ship started and led to the discovery many pieces of day-to-day life for sailors, soldiers, and leaders of this ship several golden currencies belonged to "Malta- Spain- France- Istanbul" and a bronze gun from the "Orient" ship , the discovery of the location for the drowned cities "Minous and Heraclium" which contain the remainder of Isis temple, also some statues dated back to the Pharaonic era, and some golden currencies date back to the Byzantine and Islamic eras
- As well as discovering the old extension of the Canope branch, in addition to some crockery pipes and the captain’s cooking pots were found and transferred to Alexandria's laboratories for restaurants

Maa’Moura
In 1999, an exploration was performed in this area, led to the discovery of more than a hundred pieces of crockery pots which known by "Amphora" date back to the Roman era. These pots were piled up close to the coast on the shape of two groups of crockery anchorages; each one contains only one hole, and weighs between 80 to 240 kg.
- The first group consists of four anchorages in depth of 150 meters, and the second consists of five anchorages
This area still contains plenty of monuments; therefore, the search is still going on.