23 BC Tsunami: Alexandria, Egypt

23 +3 B.C. Egyptian coasts between Alexandria and Pelusium. A seismic sea-wave probably connected with the 26 B.C. earthquake in Cyprus. (reference #15)

23 +3 B.C., Egyptian coasts between Alexandria and Pelusium, tsunami intensity III. Earthquake intensity IX, 38 1/4 N, 22 1/4E. (reference #20)

23 B.C. Paphos (Cyprus), Earthquake. Sea-wave at Pelusium (Egypt), tsunami event validity 3. (reference #2815)

20 B.C., Lower Egypt. Strabo says that when he was residing in Alexandria (up to 20 BC), 'the sea about Pelusium and Mt. Casius rose and flooded the country and made an island of the mountain, so that the road by Mt. Casius into Phoenice became navigable'. He does not mention the occurrence of an earthquake and he probably refers to the effects of a sea-wave generated by submarine slumping off the north coast of Egypt, perhaps triggered by an earthquake. Contrary to the assertion of Ben-Menahem, Nur and Vered (1976), no earthquake in that period is mentioned by contemporary historians. Large-scale flooding of the coast is considered by Strabo to be a rare event that has been observed, however, both in 20 and 139 B.C. and

in earlier times, on the Egyptian and Syrian coasts. He

does not associate these events with earthquakes, as

implied by Cledat (1920, p. lIS; 1923, p. 6S). See also,

Sieberg (I932b, p. 187) and Ben-Menahem (1979). (reference #3845)

20 B.C. Pelusium. Strabo says that when he was residing in Alexandria (until c. 20 BC), '...the sea about Pelusium and Mt Casius rose and flooded the country and made an island of the mountain, so that the road by Mt Casius into Phoenice became navigable...' Elsewhere he refers to this event as being due to the sudden change of the level of the marshy ground around Pelusium and, contrary to the assertion of modern catalguers, he does not mention the occurrence of an earthquake before or during this phenomenon. (reference #9116)