GeologyRocks

Geology gives a helping hand to archaeology again.

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070514/full/070514-2.html

"Historians need not be quite so impressed by Alexander the Great's defeat of the island of Tyre in 332BC. Geological studies of the region show that Alexander's army had help reaching the island, in the form of a natural land-bridge lying just a metre or two below the water's surface."

It appears that when Alexander the Great constructed his walkway, it wasn't in 5 or 6 metres of water, but 1 or 2, thanks to a natural sandbank just under the water.

Although unrelated historically, this is similar to the Ithaca story a few months back, where geologists are drilling the Paliki peninsula to see if this is actually Homer's Ithaca island.