ancient city was hidden for Centuries

MARINA, Egypt – Today, it's a sprawl of luxury vacation homes whereEgypt's wealthy play on the white beaches of the Mediterranean coast.But 2,000 years ago, this was a thriving Greco-Roman port city,boasting villas of merchants grown rich on the wheat and olive trade.

Theancient city, known as Leukaspis or Antiphrae, was hidden for centuriesafter it was nearly wiped out by a fourth century tsunami thatdevastated the region.

More recently, it wasnearly buried under the modern resort of Marina in a development crazethat turned this coast into the summer playground for Egypt's elite.

Nearly25 years after its discovery, Egyptian authorities are preparing toopen ancient Leukaspis' tombs, villas and city streets to visitors — arare example of a Classical era city in a country better known for itspyramids and Pharaonic temples.

"Visitors cango to understand how people lived back then, how they built theirgraves, lived in villas or traded in the main agora (square)," saidAhmed Amin, the local inspector for the antiquities department. "Everyone's heard of the resort Marina, now they will know the historic Marina."

Click image to see photos of the ancient city of Leukaspis

AP/Nasser Nasser

The history of the two Marinas isinextricably linked. When Chinese engineers began cutting into thesandy coast to build the roads for the new resort in 1986, they struckthe ancient tombs and houses of a town founded in the second centuryB.C.

About 200 acres were set aside forarchaeology, while everywhere else along the coast up sprouted holidayvillages for Egyptians escaping the stifling summer heat of theinterior for the Mediterranean's cool breezes.

Theancient city yielded up its secrets in a much more gradual fashion to ateam of Polish archaeologists excavating the site through the 1990s.

Aportrait emerged of a prosperous port town, with up to 15,000 residentsat its height, exporting grains, livestock, wine and olives to the restof the Mediterranean.

Merchants lived inelegant two-story villas set along zigzagging streets with pillaredcourtyards flanked by living and prayer rooms.

Rainwatercollected from roofs ran down special hollowed out pillars intochannels under the floor leading to the family cisterns. Wastedisappeared into a sophisticated sewer system.

Aroundthe town center, where the two main streets intersect, was the socialand economic heart of the city and there can still be found the remainsof a basilica, a hall for public events that became a church afterChristianity spread across the Roman Empire.