Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

MARINA EL-ALAMEIN

EGYPT

rectangular cistern with a curious sideways
projecting extension was introduced,
destroying a few house walls in the process.
The cistern was probably fed through
a channel that meandered somewhere from
the southwest. The architecture north of the
cistern feature fails to be easily identified for
the moment [Fig. 7}.
The next cluster of rooms (Trll)
belonged to a house located presumably to
the north of the above described group.
Only its eastern or perhaps eastern and
southeastern part has been revealed, along
with an interesting doorway presumably
leading from a central domestic space up
some steps into a room on the south.
A kitchen area in the western part
contained a monolithic block of limestone
of gigantic size, cut with recesses for
mounting some kind of installation.
Across a lane from this structure (and
the road or alley extending to the north and


Fig. 8. Latrine(?) compartment in a building
in Tr03, top view. The entrance to the
room was from the west (to the right in
the photo) and the channel emptied into
a street outside through a triangular
hole in the east wall. Some kind of
permanent seating had been installed
above the channel (Photo A. Obtuski,
courtesy MASP ARCE/EAP)

east of this structure) there stood yet
another complex (Tr03), of which only the
southeastern corner with well preserved
latrine(?) was preserved [Fig. 8}. This
building or at least the part of it that was
recorded within the limits of the surveyed
area was built entirely of slabs. Standing
walls measured some 1.70 m. With the 3 m
or so of tumbled wall slabs that were found
lying practically in order immediately to
the south of this structure, it gives us
a height of at least 4.50 m for the building.
Considering the small size of the latrine(?)
unit in the southwestern compartment of
this structure, one cannot but think of there
being an upper floor to this building. The
latrine had a paved floor and a waterproofed
channel that emptied through a triangular
opening in the wall into the open (?) space
located to the south. The unit next to it was
paved but with no other features to identify
its function. A coin found fortuitously in
the blocks from the collapsed upper parts of
walls inside the presumed latrine suggest
that the destruction occurred not earlier
than in the earthquake of AD 164.
A curious depression in the ground
must have existed already in antiquity
between the present trenches Tr03 and
TrOl. Apparently, once the building with
latrine had collapsed (it was already half
full of sand at this time and the level of
sand outside was even higher), it was not
rebuilt, unlike the neighboring structures
described above. The ruins lay in a hollow
that filled out quickly with pure sand and
remained open ground until the end of the
city's days. This open stretch of ground,
some 40-50 m long, ended with another
cluster of rooms, representing possibly two
complexes joined by back-to-back walls
(TrOl). One of the two complexes consisted
of a paved area with a cistern and bin in the

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