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HIDDEN UNDER THE SEA

Monday, May 30, 2022

In today’s newsletter, we cover one of the greatest undersea discoveries ever; look at the rise in monkeypox; unpack the strange roots of Memorial Day … and ask: Which Greek god are you?

PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRISTOPH GERIGK ©FRANCK GODDIO/HILTI FOUNDATION

The monuments of Giza or the temples of Thebes in ancient Egypt had nothing on the splendor of Thonis-Heracleion, the magnificent, canal-laden port at the mouth of the Nile.

Until the legendary city disappeared.

For more than 1,200 years.

It wasn’t until 2000 that the submerged city was discovered 33 feet below the surface of the Mediterranean, four miles off the present-day coast of Egypt. More than 70 shipwrecks and a gargantuan temple, plus traces of that canal system, were found in one of the greatest discoveries of its kind, Nat Geo reports. (Pictured above, archaeologist Franck Goddio inspects a statue of a pharaoh before bringing it to the surface.)

Read the full story here.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBBIE SHONE/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION

Archaeologists are still learning about the submerged port and three other “lost cities.” (Above, the steep-sided pyramids of Meroë, in Sudan, via Nat Geo Explorer Robbie Shone.)

STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING

Memorial Day’s controversial start

The surprising history behind the Lincoln Memorial

Monkeypox cases are on the rise: What to know about it

The weather race on the ‘roof of the world’

Stranger things: Two mysterious galaxies without dark matter

What the legendary Shangri-La looks like today

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY BETHANY MOLLENKOF

Long road back: More than two years into the pandemic, Black Americans are still suffering from COVID-19’s public health and economic consequences. The recovery of most people of color has been sporadic and uneven, and experts tell Nat Geo it will take years before Black Americans can fully recover. (Pictured above, Latasha Taylor, in the beloved garden of her mother, who died of COVID-19 in 2020.)

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Homecoming: Television actress Wu Qinglan returns to her rural mountain village of Dimen in a story from Nat Geo's 2008 issue on China. In this image by longtime Nat Geo photographer and Explorer Lynn Johnson, the actress is showing her grandmother a recent performance. She credited the shows she watched as a girl with giving her the dream to “fly out of the big mountain” (her village) to find fame. The image was recently featured in our Photo of the Day archival collection. View other selections here.

SEE VINTAGE PHOTOS

IN A FEW WORDS

QUOTE

I didn’t feel that I did anything wrong. If anybody did wrong, it was the law.

Fred Korematsu

Japanese American detainee during World War II, civil rights leader

From: How Fred Korematsu defied the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans in WWII

LAST GLIMPSE

SCALA, FLORENCE

Party down: How did Greek mythology designate one god for wine, fertility, fruitfulness, theater, ecstasy, and abandon? Well, Dionysus, according to legend, brought spontaneity, joy, and freedom to the people—but also disruption, occasional cruelty, and transgression. “Dionysus, a genial but wild and dangerously ravishing intermediary, represents one of the enduring mysteries and paradoxes of life,” Nat Geo’s History magazine writes in this profile. (Pictured above, Caravaggio’s 1595 portrait of the god of wine showed him as a callow adolescent.)

Quiz: Which Greek god are you?

ABOUT THAT WINE GOD

Today's newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Have an idea or link to a story you think is right down our alley? Let us know at [email protected]. Happy trails!

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