Geoarchaeology of The Ptolemic Myos Hormos Harbor, Quseir, Red Sea Coast, Egypt

Abstract

Myos Hormos lies at the head of a bay, behind which is a silted lagoon. The small inlet cuts the Late Pleistocene coral reef that runs parallel to the shore. Rainfall water is catched from the upstream oriented northwest and distributed through the two main stream valleys, Wadi Anz and Wadi Quseir El Qadim, into downstream (the bottom of silted lagoon and its inlet) then in the sea. The two main valleys bring flash floods in winter annually. The prevailing wind is NW-SE direction. Geomorphologically, the upper stream of Thebes limestone Plateau (about 200m above sea level) is washed through alluvial fans slopped down to the bay. The bay is particularly well sheltered by two southwest Plio-Pleistocene and Holocene coralline coastal terraces that flank southwestern side on the Quseir El Qadim Red Sea Coast. The entrance to the embayment faces the southwestern side. Bed load sediments is supplied by the two stream valleys Wadi Anz and Wadi Quseir El Qadim. The catchment area of Wadi Anz and Wadi Quseir El Qadim is about 47.53 square km. Its width is about 7 km from east to west and its length about 5 km from north to south. The upstream area is about 200m above sea level where downstream found a few dozen centimeters above mean sea level. Occasionally, the fringing reefs form a platform-like barrier against the open sea, behind which shallow protected lagoons are developed, particularly at the mouths of these wadis. Also, they form elongated narrow framework running in the general direction of the Red Sea and are about 1-2 m below sea level, which allows exchanging the water between the sea and the lagoon.