An Underwater Archaeology Short Story by J.F. Penn
The Dark Queen
A sunken city. A lost goddess. One final dive to risk it all.
At the end of the excavation season over the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion, junior archaeologist Lara begs one last dive before the storm reburies everything.
She has glimpsed the legendary Dark Queen in the ruins below, a statue said to imprison a queen who avenged an ancient wrong, and every night the voice grows louder.
Freeing her will cost more than Lara can imagine.
The drowned city is calling.
Available in ebook. Buying direct supports the author most, and ships worldwide.
The research behind the book
Thonis-Heracleion
Egypt's greatest port before Alexandria, lost beneath the Mediterranean around two thousand years ago and only rediscovered this century, preserved under metres of silt in Aboukir Bay.
Learn more →Sunken Cities at the British Museum
The 2016 exhibition displayed statues raised from Thonis-Heracleion, including the serene dark stone queen whose face sparked this story.
Colossi of the deep
Colossal statues of gods and pharaohs were found toppled on the seabed, sightless faces staring into the green gloom exactly as divers first encountered them.
Underwater archaeology
Real excavation of the site is a race against silt, storms and dive tables, with only minutes of bottom time before the sea reclaims it.
Learn more →Alexandria
The dive boats work within sight of Alexandria's minarets, a coast layered with myth where Egyptian magic and Greek trade met at the edge of the sea.
