Lost artefacts from sunken cities dubbed the Atlantis of Egypt are to be together for the first time after laying submerged for more than a thousand years

Lost artefacts from sunken cities dubbed the Atlantis of Egypt are to be together for the first time after laying submerged for more than a thousand years

Enormous statues, golden jewellery and hieroglyphic tablets which were feared lost forever have been reclaimed from the sea, and are to be put on public display next year in a major exhibition by the British Museum

The treasures belong to Heracleion and Canopus, cities built on the shifting ground of the Nile delta, which are now buried beneath three metres of silt. Ancient texts record the existence of the settlements, which were the gateway to Egypt before Alexandria rose to prominence. But the two trading hubs were lost - literally - to the sands of time until a chance discovery in 1996

Divers in the mouth of the Nile unearthed the treasures, and have spent almost two decades since painstakingly dredging them out of the deep. Highlights of the collection include a 1.9m heirogylphic tablet inscribed with a royal declaration from Pharaoh Nectanebo I and a 5.4m statue of Hapy, an Egyptian god who personifies the Nile’s floods

The slab, which is 1.9m tall, will be one of the treasures on display at an upcoming British Museum exhibition of underwater treasures. It is inscribed with the decree of Sa?s, which levied a tax on imports from Greece

A diver secures a 5.4m statue of Hapy, a divine personification of the Nile floods, to be lifted out of the waters. The colossal red granite carving will one of the exhibition’s centrepieces. The six-tonne statue, which dates to the 4th Century BC is the largest known example of a Hapy statue

The thick silt which covered most of the reclaimed artefacts helped preserve them from centuries of decay

The exhibition, called Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost World, will run from May to November next year. It will combine items from the Museum’s own archives with items on special loan from Egyptian authorities, who rarely let the artefacts leave their country

Around 300 items will be put on display, most of which were pulled from the sunken ruins. The exhibition will focus on the mingling of cultures in the Nile delta cities, particularly the interaction between Egypt and Ancient Greece

Other treasures on display will include a statue of Arsinoe II, a queen in the Ptolemaic dynasty which was founded after Alexander the Great conquered the country