Report by Yashasvi Anika Tandon
A team of archaeologists from Poland and America unearthed a statue of Lord Buddha in a temple on Berenike shore (an Ancient Egyptian sea-shore).
Image: Screen grab from Google maps
The statue is 71cms (28 inches) tall. It shows a standing Lord Buddha with the right side and right leg of the statue missing. There is a halo of sunlight around the head of Gautam Buddha which he emitted after gaining enlightenment.
Gautam Buddha is also shown holding a lotus by his side. Inscriptions in Sanskrit as well as inscriptions in Greek dating back to the 1st century BCE feature on the statue.
Two coins from the Satvahana dynasty (a dynasty in the Deccan region of India) were also unearthed at the temple. The Satvahanas were one of the first among all dynasties of India to issue state coins having images of their kings. The two coins dated back to around the 2nd century BCE.
All these discoveries go back to Roman- era Egypt.
The temple was discovered on the Western shore of the Red Sea, Egypt. The seaport Berenice Trogolodytica or Berenike was an important seaport for trade of unique goods like pepper, cloth, semi-precious stones, ivory, and war elephants. The trade of these goods was between India, Sri Lanka, Arabia, and Egypt.