"This was proof that there was significant metallurgy and human activity going on back 1,000 years B.C.," Stanley said. "Alexandria did not just grow out from a barren desert, but was built atop an active town. We had five well-defined components that fit — and we had the story. And the story was that Alexander the Great did not come first to set up Alexandria, there was already something there."
Stanley could not say how big the community was, only that it appeared more developed than the small fishing village long believed to be at the site.
Mohamed Abdel-Maqsud, an Alexandria expert from Egypt's Council of Antiquities, was cautious and said the work on uncovering Rhakotis was only in the beginning stages.
"We can't give a wealth of information out now, we are still working," Maqsud said.
"There are signs of a flourishing settlement, going back to Pharaonic times, but it's too early to say anything about it."
Stanley hopes that a study of Rhakotis may one day prove as inspiring as other recent offshore discoveries — such as finds by marine archaeologists of the 2,500-year-old ruins the cities of Herakleion, Canopus and Menouthis, pharaonic cities built on different parts of the coast near present-day Alexandria.
"There is an awful lot more of history to know," Stanley said, adding that geologists would have to drill more intensely on land, around the shores, and in Alexandria itself to shed more light on the ancient world.
"I'm sure they will find artifacts of Rhakotis someday," he said. "And we will know more about the people who lived there."
