The team plans to map the entire city via geophysics this year, pending funding. Summer temps hit 120°F and air pollution is brutal, but the payoff is huge: reconstructing a complete ancient metropolis that's been untouched since antiquity.
The site could rewrite what we know about the Parthian Empire, which controlled the city after Alexander's conquest. Hauser calls it "one of antiquity's most understudied powers" — there's not even a useful summary of its history. This city is the key.
Despite repeated flooding over millennia, preservation is "absolutely stunning" per archaeologist Stefan R. Hauser. Building walls appear immediately beneath the surface. No later construction ever happened here — giving researchers a rare frozen-in-time snapshot of an entire ancient city.
Excavation started in the 2010s under ISIS-controlled Iraq — researchers could only survey under armed guard. But drone imagery and geophysical scans recently revealed the full scale: fortification walls, street grids, temple complexes, workshops with kilns, and a harbor system.
The city sits in southern Iraq near the Persian Gulf. Alexander personally chose the site as a critical trade hub linking India to Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. It thrived for centuries until the Tigris River shifted course in the 3rd century A.D., burying it in obscurity.
Archaeologists just confirmed the location of Alexandria on the Tigris — a massive port city founded by Alexander the Great in 324 B.C. that's been lost for nearly 2,000 years. The kicker? It's 2.5 square miles with city blocks bigger than Alexandria in Egypt or any major capital of its time.
6/6 🧵
The team plans to map the entire city via geophysics this year, pending funding. Summer temps hit 120°F and air pollution is brutal, but the payoff is huge: reconstructing a complete ancient metropolis that's been untouched since antiquity.
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5/6 🧵
The site could rewrite what we know about the Parthian Empire, which controlled the city after Alexander's conquest. Hauser calls it "one of antiquity's most understudied powers" — there's not even a useful summary of its history. This city is the key.
4/6 🧵
Despite repeated flooding over millennia, preservation is "absolutely stunning" per archaeologist Stefan R. Hauser. Building walls appear immediately beneath the surface. No later construction ever happened here — giving researchers a rare frozen-in-time snapshot of an entire ancient city.
3/6 🧵
Excavation started in the 2010s under ISIS-controlled Iraq — researchers could only survey under armed guard. But drone imagery and geophysical scans recently revealed the full scale: fortification walls, street grids, temple complexes, workshops with kilns, and a harbor system.
2/6 🧵
The city sits in southern Iraq near the Persian Gulf. Alexander personally chose the site as a critical trade hub linking India to Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean. It thrived for centuries until the Tigris River shifted course in the 3rd century A.D., burying it in obscurity.
1/6 🧵
Archaeologists just confirmed the location of Alexandria on the Tigris — a massive port city founded by Alexander the Great in 324 B.C. that's been lost for nearly 2,000 years. The kicker? It's 2.5 square miles with city blocks bigger than Alexandria in Egypt or any major capital of its time.