IN EGYPT, ANTINOUS AND HADRIAN VISITED THE REAL-LIFE ATLANTIS BEFORE IT SANK

AS Antinous and Hadrian visited Alexandria in August of the year 130 AD, they made side trips to the resort of Canopus and embarked on a lion-hunting excursion ... and also probably visited the fabled city of Heracleion with its famous temple dedicated to the Nile Inundation Deity HAPI. 

They could scarcely know that they were visiting a real-life Atlantis ... that the city would literally vanish from the map a few centuries afterward.

This real-life Atlantis which sank off the coast of Egypt nearly 1,200 years ago has now been brought back to the surface with the help of 3-D. 

Archaeologists are working underwater at the site and it is possible they may turn up evidence that Antinous and Hadrian visited this "Egyptian Venice" before a quake caused it to sink beneath the waves.

The city of Heracleion, home of the temple where Cleopatra was crowned, was one of the most important trade centres in the Mediterranean area before it disappeared into what is now the Bay of Aboukir.

The Imperial entourage visited Alexandria and nearby Canopus in 130 AD. 

It is hard to believe they would have passed by fabled Heracleion without at least a brief stop to pay respects at the famous temple of Hapi the Nile inundation deity ... it was Hapi who helped Antinous perform his first miracle after deification.

Heracleion was re-discovered in 2001, and after more than a decade of excavation, researchers have now been able to create a map depicting life in the ancient trade hub.

For centuries, Heracleion was believed to be a legend, much like the fabled city of Atlantis.

But a few years ago, underwater archaeologist Dr Franck Goddio was searching the Egyptian coastline for French warships from the 18th century battle of the Nile, but instead stumbled across the treasures of the lost city.

After removing layers of sand and mud, divers discovered evidence of extraordinary wealth, painting a picture of what life was like in Heracleion, believed to have been at the centre of Mediterranean trade more than 1,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have found remains of more than 64 ships, buried in the seabed four miles off the coast of Egypt, the largest number of ancient ships ever to be found in one place.

As well as 700 anchors, the team have dug up gold coins and weights made from bronze and stone which would have been used in trade and to calculate taxation rates.

"The site has amazing preservation," said Dr Damian Robinson, director of the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

"We are getting a rich picture of things like the trade that was going on there and the nature of the maritime economy in the Egyptian late period. 

"There were things were coming in from Greece and the Phoenicians."

The international research team have also discovered remnants of the legendary temple of Amun-Gereb where Cleopatra was invested with the power to rule Egypt.

The temple was the centre point of Heracleion from which a Venetian web of canals and channels connected other parts of the city together. 

Giant 3-meter (16 ft) statues of HAPI, OSIRIS and ISIS (pictured here) have been reassembled on the seabed 50 meters (150 ft) below the surface before being brought ashore, as well as hundreds of smaller statues of Egyptian gods.

Other finds include stone blocks with both Greek and Ancient Egyptian inscriptions and dozens of sarcophagi believed to have contained mummified animals offered as sacrifices to Amun-Gereb.

The research team, led by Dr Goddio have yet to establish what cause the city to go down, but the main theory is that the unstable sediments Heracleion was built on collapsed, and in combination with a rising sea-levels, may have caused the entire area to drop 12 feet straight into the water.

"We are just at the beginning of our research," Dr Goddio says.

"We will probably have to continue working for the next 200 years."

IN EGYPT, ANTINOUS AND HADRIAN VISITED THE REAL-LIFE ATLANTIS BEFORE IT SANK

AS Antinous and Hadrian visited Alexandria in August of the year 130 AD, they made side trips to the resort of Canopus and embarked on a lion-hunting excursion ... and also probably visited the fabled city of Heracleion with its famous temple dedicated to the Nile Inundation Deity HAPI. 

They could scarcely know that they were visiting a real-life Atlantis ... that the city would literally vanish from the map a few centuries afterward.

This real-life Atlantis which sank off the coast of Egypt nearly 1,200 years ago has now been brought back to the surface with the help of 3-D. 

Archaeologists are working underwater at the site and it is possible they may turn up evidence that Antinous and Hadrian visited this "Egyptian Venice" before a quake caused it to sink beneath the waves.

The city of Heracleion, home of the temple where Cleopatra was crowned, was one of the most important trade centres in the Mediterranean area before it disappeared into what is now the Bay of Aboukir.

The Imperial entourage visited Alexandria and nearby Canopus in 130 AD. 

It is hard to believe they would have passed by fabled Heracleion without at least a brief stop to pay respects at the famous temple of Hapi the Nile inundation deity ... it was Hapi who helped Antinous perform his first miracle after deification.

Heracleion was re-discovered in 2001, and after more than a decade of excavation, researchers have now been able to create a map depicting life in the ancient trade hub.

For centuries, Heracleion was believed to be a legend, much like the fabled city of Atlantis.

But a few years ago, underwater archaeologist Dr Franck Goddio was searching the Egyptian coastline for French warships from the 18th century battle of the Nile, but instead stumbled across the treasures of the lost city.

After removing layers of sand and mud, divers discovered evidence of extraordinary wealth, painting a picture of what life was like in Heracleion, believed to have been at the centre of Mediterranean trade more than 1,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have found remains of more than 64 ships, buried in the seabed four miles off the coast of Egypt, the largest number of ancient ships ever to be found in one place.

As well as 700 anchors, the team have dug up gold coins and weights made from bronze and stone which would have been used in trade and to calculate taxation rates.

"The site has amazing preservation," said Dr Damian Robinson, director of the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

"We are getting a rich picture of things like the trade that was going on there and the nature of the maritime economy in the Egyptian late period. 

"There were things were coming in from Greece and the Phoenicians."

The international research team have also discovered remnants of the legendary temple of Amun-Gereb where Cleopatra was invested with the power to rule Egypt.

The temple was the centre point of Heracleion from which a Venetian web of canals and channels connected other parts of the city together. 

Giant 3-meter (16 ft) statues of HAPI, OSIRIS and ISIS (pictured here) have been reassembled on the seabed 50 meters (150 ft) below the surface before being brought ashore, as well as hundreds of smaller statues of Egyptian gods.

Other finds include stone blocks with both Greek and Ancient Egyptian inscriptions and dozens of sarcophagi believed to have contained mummified animals offered as sacrifices to Amun-Gereb.

The research team, led by Dr Goddio have yet to establish what cause the city to go down, but the main theory is that the unstable sediments Heracleion was built on collapsed, and in combination with a rising sea-levels, may have caused the entire area to drop 12 feet straight into the water.

"We are just at the beginning of our research," Dr Goddio says.

"We will probably have to continue working for the next 200 years."

ANTINOUS WINTERING IN CALIFORNIA AT GODDIO'S LOST CITIES EXHIBITION

ANTINOUS is spending the winter in sunny Southern California in the United States.

This statue of Antinous as a very pensive Osiris is from the Alexandria Museum and it is part of the EGYPT'S LOST CITIES exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley which runs until 12 April 2020.

It is among some fabulous Egyptian monuments and treasures which Antinous himself may have seen ... but which were lost at the bottom of the sea for centuries.

This 2nd Century AD statue depicts Antinous in a Romanized-Egyptian style as a royal personage striding with his left foot forward ... as was the traditional depiction of Egyptian pharaohs and gods.

He is wearing the traditional dynastic kilt which gods and pharaohs were always shown as wearing.

In addition, he appears to have a Uraeus stylized spitting cobra as the centerpiece of his wig-like headdress.

One fist is visible, clinched in the ages-old symbol of divine power seen on countless statues of deities and pharaohs throughout the ages.

It is one of the most unusual statues depicting Antinous as Osiris. The workmanship is more Greco-Roman than Egyptian around the head and face ... but the body adheres to traditional Egyptian artistic style mandates.

He has a rather pensive expression on his face, as if he is gazing off into the far distance.

Originally, of course, the eye sockets would have had gemstone-and-ivory eyes, perhaps outlined with copper "eyeliner."

This splendid statue is part of the stunning exhibition currently on show in London which includes sunken treasures.

You have all heard of Franck Goddio, the French marine archeologist who made headlines in the 1990s with his discovery in the Bay of Alexandria of ruins and artefacts which appear to have come from royal palaces, temples and perhaps even the Pharos lighthouse.

It is intriguing to think that Antinous may have gazed on those treasures when he and Hadrian visited Egypt in 130 AD.

Since first discovering the Alexandria treasures, Monsieur Goddio has gone on to trawl the waters a few kilometres east of Alexandria in hopes of discovering the fabled "Lost Cities" of Canopus and HERAKLEION (Heracleion), which he succeeded in finding in 2000.

Goddio's exhibition of "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" has traveled the world.

Now, Goddio is back with even more artifacts retrieved from the bottom of the sea … at the RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY AND MUSEUM.

It offers a rare public viewing of newly discovered Canopus-Herakleion treasures since the two cities vanished below the waves in a series of floods and earthquakes, finally disappearing completely in the late 7th Century AD.

By that time, Egyptian priests had retreated to Canopus-Herakleion and Muslims were sweeping across the land.

Thus the exhibition offers a sort of time capsule of the waning days of paganism when the "barbarians" literally stood at the gates.

There are many statues, mostly fragmentary ones minus heads and limbs ... and one (alleged) statue of Antinous with a facial expression of pensive introspection.

Take a video tour here:

 

IN EGYPT, ANTINOUS AND HADRIAN VISITED THE REAL-LIFE ATLANTIS BEFORE IT SANK

AS Antinous and Hadrian visited Alexandria in August of the year 130 AD, they made side trips to the resort of Canopus and embarked on a lion-hunting excursion ... and also probably visited the fabled city of Heracleion with its famous temple dedicated to the Nile Inundation Deity HAPI. 

They could scarcely know that they were visiting a real-life Atlantis ... that the city would literally vanish from the map a few centuries afterward.

This real-life Atlantis which sank off the coast of Egypt nearly 1,200 years ago has now been brought back to the surface with the help of 3-D. 

Archaeologists are working underwater at the site and it is possible they may turn up evidence that Antinous and Hadrian visited this "Egyptian Venice" before a quake caused it to sink beneath the waves.

The city of Heracleion, home of the temple where Cleopatra was crowned, was one of the most important trade centres in the Mediterranean area before it disappeared into what is now the Bay of Aboukir.

The Imperial entourage visited Alexandria and nearby Canopus in 130 AD. 

It is hard to believe they would have passed by fabled Heracleion without at least a brief stop to pay respects at the famous temple of Hapi the Nile inundation deity ... it was Hapi who helped Antinous perform his first miracle after deification.

Heracleion was re-discovered in 2001, and after more than a decade of excavation, researchers have now been able to create a map depicting life in the ancient trade hub.

For centuries, Heracleion was believed to be a legend, much like the fabled city of Atlantis.

But a few years ago, underwater archaeologist Dr Franck Goddio was searching the Egyptian coastline for French warships from the 18th century battle of the Nile, but instead stumbled across the treasures of the lost city.

After removing layers of sand and mud, divers discovered evidence of extraordinary wealth, painting a picture of what life was like in Heracleion, believed to have been at the centre of Mediterranean trade more than 1,000 years ago.

Archaeologists have found remains of more than 64 ships, buried in the seabed four miles off the coast of Egypt, the largest number of ancient ships ever to be found in one place.

As well as 700 anchors, the team have dug up gold coins and weights made from bronze and stone which would have been used in trade and to calculate taxation rates.

"The site has amazing preservation," said Dr Damian Robinson, director of the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford.

"We are getting a rich picture of things like the trade that was going on there and the nature of the maritime economy in the Egyptian late period. 

"There were things were coming in from Greece and the Phoenicians."

The international research team have also discovered remnants of the legendary temple of Amun-Gereb where Cleopatra was invested with the power to rule Egypt.

The temple was the centre point of Heracleion from which a Venetian web of canals and channels connected other parts of the city together. 

Giant 3-meter (16 ft) statues of HAPI, OSIRIS and ISIS (pictured here) have been reassembled on the seabed 50 meters (150 ft) below the surface before being brought ashore, as well as hundreds of smaller statues of Egyptian gods.

Other finds include stone blocks with both Greek and Ancient Egyptian inscriptions and dozens of sarcophagi believed to have contained mummified animals offered as sacrifices to Amun-Gereb.

The research team, led by Dr Goddio have yet to establish what cause the city to go down, but the main theory is that the unstable sediments Heracleion was built on collapsed, and in combination with a rising sea-levels, may have caused the entire area to drop 12 feet straight into the water.

"We are just at the beginning of our research," Dr Goddio says.

"We will probably have to continue working for the next 200 years."

ANTINOUS ON VACATION IN ST. LOUIS AT GODDIO'S SUNKEN CITIES EXHIBITION

ANTINOUS is spending his summer holidays in Saint Louis in the United States.

This statue of Antinous as a very pensive Osiris is from the Alexandria Museum and it is part of the SUNKEN CITIES: EGYPT'S LOST WORLDS exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum which runs 9 September 2018.

It is among some fabulous Egyptian monuments and treasures which Antinous himself may have seen ... but which were lost at the bottom of the sea for centuries.

This 2nd Century AD statue depicts Antinous in a Romanized-Egyptian style as a royal personage striding with his left foot forward ... as was the traditional depiction of Egyptian pharaohs and gods.

He is wearing the traditional dynastic kilt which gods and pharaohs were always shown as wearing.

In addition, he appears to have a Uraeus stylized spitting cobra as the centerpiece of his wig-like headdress.

One fist is visible, clinched in the ages-old symbol of divine power seen on countless statues of deities and pharaohs throughout the ages.

It is one of the most unusual statues depicting Antinous as Osiris. The workmanship is more Greco-Roman than Egyptian around the head and face ... but the body adheres to traditional Egyptian artistic style mandates.

He has a rather pensive expression on his face, as if he is gazing off into the far distance.

Originally, of course, the eye sockets would have had gemstone-and-ivory eyes, perhaps outlined with copper "eyeliner."

This splendid statue is part of the stunning exhibition currently on show in London which includes sunken treasures.

You have all heard of Franck Goddio, the French marine archeologist who made headlines in the 1990s with his discovery in the Bay of Alexandria of ruins and artefacts which appear to have come from royal palaces, temples and perhaps even the Pharos lighthouse.

It is intriguing to think that Antinous may have gazed on those treasures when he and Hadrian visited Egypt in 130 AD.

Since first discovering the Alexandria treasures, Monsieur Goddio has gone on to trawl the waters a few kilometres east of Alexandria in hopes of discovering the fabled "Lost Cities" of Canopus and HERAKLEION (Heracleion), which he succeeded in finding in 2000.

Goddio's exhibition of "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" has traveled the world.

Now, Goddio is back with even more artifacts retrieved from the bottom of the sea … at the ST. LOUIS ART MUSEUM.

It offers a rare public viewing of newly discovered Canopus-Herakleion treasures since the two cities vanished below the waves in a series of floods and earthquakes, finally disappearing completely in the late 7th Century AD.

By that time, Egyptian priests had retreated to Canopus-Herakleion and Muslims were sweeping across the land.

Thus the exhibition offers a sort of time capsule of the waning days of paganism when the "barbarians" literally stood at the gates.

There are many statues, mostly fragmentary ones minus heads and limbs ... and one (alleged) statue of Antinous with a facial expression of pensive introspection.

THE FIRST MIRACLE OF ANTINOUS INVOLVED A TRANSGENDER DEITY

ON September 28th the Ancient Egyptians celebrated the Feast of the Creation of the Nile Inundation as represented by the transgender deity HAPI.

It was through HAPI that Antinous worked his first miracle ... bringing about a bountiful Nile inundation which ended a long famine ... only a few months after he died and was deified.

Hapi is special to us especially because Hapi is transgender. With many other such deities, the gender division is down the middle of the body (like some Hindu deities) or the top half is one gender and the bottom half is the other.

But Hapi is very complex and the genders are mixed throughout his/her body. Male deities invariably have reddish-orange skin in Egyptian Art and female deities have yellowish skin. 

However, Hapi has bluish-green skin. Hapi has long hair like a female deity but has a square jaw and a beard. Hapi has broad shoulders yet has pendulous breasts like a nursing mother. 

Hapi has narrow hips and masculine thighs, but has a pregnant belly. Nobody knows what sort of genitals Hapi has, since they are covered by a strange garment reminiscent of a sumo wrestler's belt.

Hapi is both father and mother to the Egyptians. Hapi provides them with everything necessary for life. As Herodotus wrote, "Egypt is the gift of the Nile". 

Hapi wears a fabulous headdress of towering water plants and she/he carries enormous offering trays laden with foodstuffs.

The Ancient Egyptians had no problem worshipping a mixed-gender deity. 

It is very important to draw the connection between Hapi and Antinous, especially since the First Miracle that Antinous performed as a god involved Hapi. The Egyptians accepted Antinous into their own belief system immediately and were among the most ardent followers of Antinous.

They had no problem worshipping a gay deity who had united himself with a transgender deity. 

It must have seemed very logical and credible to them.

It made sense to them and enriched their belief system, made it more personal since they could identify more easily with a handsome young man than with a hermaphrodite wearing a sumo belt (Hapi forgive me!).

Herodotus also said he once asked a very learned religious man in Egypt what the true source of the Nile was.

The learned man (speaking through an interpreter, since most Greeks never bothered to learn Egyptian) paused and finally told him the true source of the Nile is the thigh of Osiris.

We think of it as a strange answer. We think of the Nile as an "it" and the source as a "geographical location". 

But the Egyptians thought of the Nile as "us" and its true source as "heka" — the magical semen of the creator.

So, a learned Egyptian would have assumed that a learned Greek would understand what was meant: That Hapi is the equivalent of Dionysus, who was "incubated" in the inner thigh of Zeus after his pregnant mortal mother Semele perished when she could not bear the searing sight of her lover Zeus in all his divine panoply.

It's a very poetic way (a very Egyptian way) of saying that the "true source" of the Nile, which is to say Egypt itself, is the magical heka/semen from the loins of the original creator.

The grandest depiction of HAPI is a colossal statue found in the submerged ruins of HERACLEION at the mouth of the Nile ... this statue once flanked the portals of the Great Temple in that city before earthquakes and tsunamis sent it to the bottom of the sea. 

It was rediscovered by marine archaeologist Marck Goddio and is the highlight of a British Museum EXHIBITION ... as seen in the photo at left.

We will never know what happened during that journey up the Nile along the drought-parched fields with anxious Egyptian farmers looking to Hadrian for a miracle ... in September and October of the year 130 AD. 

All we know is that Antinous "plunged into the Nile" and into the arms of Hapi in late October of the year 130.

And then the following summer, Hapi the Inundation Deity provided a bountiful Nile flood which replenished the food stocks of Egypt — and the Roman Empire.

The First Miracle of Antinous the Gay God is enshrined in the hieroglyphic inscription on the OBELISK OF ANTINOUS which stands in Rome.

The East Face of the Obelisk, which is aligned to the rising sun Ra-Herakhte, speaks of the joy that fills the heart of Antinous since having been summoned to meet his heavenly father Ra-Herakhte and to become a god himself.

Then the inscription tells how Antinous intercedes with Ra-Herakhte to shower blessings upon Hadrian and the Empress Sabina Augusta.

And Antinous immediately calls upon Hapi ...

Hapi, progenitor of the gods,
On behalf of Hadrian and Sabina,
Arrange the inundation in fortuitous time
To make fertile and bountiful, the fields
Of Both Upper and Lower Egypt!

We joyfully celebrate this, the First Miracle of Antinous!

WAS ANTINOUS AS CHUBBY AS THIS STATUE AT LONDON SUNKEN CITIES EXHIBITION?

WAS Antinous really this chubby? And did Hadrian really look like a lowly bureaucrat as these two sculptures suggest?

Experts on Antinous and Hadrian are hotly discussing this question ... despite the fact that the Alexandria Museum insists they are sculptures of the two lovers.

You can take a first-hand look yourself because both are on view in London at the exhibition entitled SUNKEN CITIES: EGYPT'S LOST WORLDS which runs through 27 November 2016 ... the birthday of Antinous!

They are among some fabulous Egyptian monuments and treasures which Antinous himself may have seen ... but which were lost at the bottom of the sea for centuries.

This 2nd Century AD statue (allegedly) depicts Antinous in a Romanized-Egyptian style as a royal personage striding with his left foot forward ... as was the traditional depiction of Egyptian pharaohs and gods.

He is wearing the traditional dynastic kilt which gods and pharaohs were always shown as wearing.

In addition, he appears to have a Uraeus stylized spitting cobra as the centerpiece of his wig-like headdress.

One fist is visible, clinched in the ages-old symbol of divine power seen on countless statues of deities and pharaohs throughout the ages.

It is one of the most unusual statues depicting Antinous as Osiris. The workmanship is more Greco-Roman than Egyptian around the head and face ... but the body adheres to traditional Egyptian artistic style mandates.

He has a rather pensive expression on his face, as if he is gazing off into the far distance.

Originally, of course, the eye sockets would have had gemstone-and-ivory eyes, perhaps outlined with copper "eyeliner."

This splendid statue is part of the stunning exhibition currently on show in London which includes sunken treasures.

You have all heard of Franck Goddio, the French marine archeologist who made headlines in the 1990s with his discovery in the Bay of Alexandria of ruins and artefacts which appear to have come from royal palaces, temples and perhaps even the Pharos lighthouse.

It is intriguing to think that Antinous may have gazed on those treasures when he and Hadrian visited Egypt in 130 AD.

Since first discovering the Alexandria treasures, Monsieur Goddio has gone on to trawl the waters a few kilometres east of Alexandria in hopes of discovering the fabled "Lost Cities" of Canopus and HERAKLEION (Heracleion), which he succeeded in finding in 2000.

Goddio's exhibition of "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" has traveled the world.

Now, Goddio is back with even more artifacts retrieved from the bottom of the sea … at the BRITISH MUSEUM Sunken Cities exhibition in London.

The exhibition opened 19 May runs through 27 November 2016 ... which is the birthday of Antinous.

It offers a rare public viewing of newly discovered Canopus-Herakleion treasures since the two cities vanished below the waves in a series of floods and earthquakes, finally disappearing completely in the late 7th Century AD.

By that time, Egyptian priests had retreated to Canopus-Herakleion and Muslims were sweeping across the land.

Thus the exhibition offers a sort of time capsule of the waning days of paganism when the "barbarians" literally stood at the gates.

There are many statues, mostly fragmentary ones minus heads and limbs ... and one (alleged) statue of Antinous with a facial expression of pensive introspection.

NOW YOU CAN SEE LOST TREASURES THAT ANTINOUS MAY HAVE SEEN

A stunning new exhibition at the British Museum will enable you to see some colossal statues and other treasures that Antinous saw in coastal Egypt ... before they vanished beneath the sea in quake-spawned tsunamis. 

Some 300 outstanding objects have been brought together in the blockbuster exhibition SUNKEN CITIES which opened 19 May 2016 at the British Museum in London and which ends on 27 November 2016 ... the birthday of Antinous.

The exhibition features objects from the British Museum's own collection plus spectacular artefacts brought to the surface over the past 20 years by marine archaeologist Franck Goddio off the coast of Alexandria and also at two nearby cities famed as resorts in ancient times.

Vanished beneath the Mediterranean for 1,000 years, the fabled "Lost Cities" of Canopus and HERAKLEION (Heracleion) once lay at the mouth of the Nile. 

Goddio and his divers found those lost cities in 2000.

It is intriguing to think that Antinous may have gazed on those treasures when he and Hadrian visited Egypt in 130 AD.

Since first discovering the Alexandria treasures, Monsieur Goddio has gone on to trawl the waters a few kilometres east of Alexandria in hopes of discovering

Goddio's exhibition of "Egypt's Sunken Treasures" has traveled the world and the British Museum is supplementing the show with a selection of its own objects.

The exhibition also showcases ongoing research ... the most recently excavated objects were found only in 2012!

The discoveries are transforming our understanding of the ancient civilizations of Greece and Egypt.

It brings many objects to Britain for the first time, including statues and jewelry.

The exhibition is the first public viewing of newly discovered Canopus/Herakleion treasures since the two cities vanished below the waves in a series of floods and earthquakes, finally disappearing completely in the late 7th Century AD.

By that time, Egyptian priests had retreated to Canopus/Herakleion and advancing Muslims were sweeping across the land. Thus the exhibition offers a sort of time capsule of the waning days of paganism when the "barbarians" literally stood at the gates.

There are many statues, mostly fragmentary ones minus heads and limbs. 

But by far the most impressive statues are three virtually intact monumental figures of Isis, Amun and the Nile inundation deity Hapi which stand 5.5 meters (nearly 20 feet) tall.

The figure on the right of Hapi is particularly remarkable because it is the world's only large and intact statue of this hermaphrodite deity.

Two modern-day priests of Antinous saw this statue of Hapi in all its magnificence at an exhibition in Germany in 2007 where the two priests placed flowers at the base of the statue and said prayers. 

Hapi, with narrow male hips and strong thighs, but with pendulous female breasts, with long Isis-like hair, but with a chinbeard and with a tall headdress of lotus and papyrus plants on his/her head, holds forth a sacrificial platter.

Presumably, the ancient priests would heap foodstuffs onto that platter on a daily basis, or at least on special feast days ... just as the two modern-day priests did before the statue at the exhibition in Germany.

When Antinous and Hadrian were there, the Nile had failed to flood sufficiently in the summer of the year 130 and there were great concerns that Egypt, the "bread basket" of the Roman empire, would not be able to supply enough food for the coming season.

That makes this particular statue of Hapi even more significant. Throughout Egypt, throughout the empire, all eyes were on Hadrian to intercede with Hapi to avert famine and hunger-induced rioting.

These three statues flanked the portals of the main temple in Herakleion and Hadrian and Antinous must have seen this magnificent statue of the Nile flood deity Hapi ... the first miracle attributed to Antinous after his deification only a few months later was the end of the drought with the help of Hapi.

Was there a link between the looming flood disaster and Hadrian's flagging powers? As Lambert writes: "The link, if any, was in Antinous' mind."