AEI treats each and every artifact as a treasure in its own right, and it was only fitting that Cincinnati give a royal welcome to the 10-ton centerpieces of “Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt.” These imposing 16-foot red granite statues of a queen and king from the dynasty in which Cleopatra ruled will be the first artifacts installed at Cincinnati Museum Center as the exhibition prepares for its February 18 debut.

Once proud sentinels at an ancient temple in Heracleion, where Cleopatra was crowned, the royal pair spent centuries in ruins below the Mediterranean Sea after the city was wiped out in antiquity by a series of earthquakes and tidal waves. Just a decade ago, underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio discovered this “lost Atlantis,” a thriving center of religion and commerce in its day. Then began the painstaking process of retrieving what lay in wait below the ocean. The quest to recover the city’s ancient secrets continues today…

Over the next weeks, the AEI team will turn the Museum Center galleries into a place of discovery, granting visitors unparalleled access to ancient relics from the deep and the sense that they are part of this massive search and recovery effort underway in Egypt.