The article gives preliminary information on the shipwrecks of the submerged Egyptian city of Heracleion-Thonis excavated by the European Institute of Underwater Archaeology (IEASM). Underwater surveys started in 1996 in the Bay of Abukir allowed determining the outline of the submerged Canopic region, the circumstances and chronology of its submersion. From the 8th century B.C.E., this town was the custom and border post, and the emporion which controlled access to the Canopic channel, traded with the Greek regions and supervised foreign ships. More than sixty ships dating from the 6th to the 2nd centuries B.C.E. were discovered in the port regions and in the canals of the city bringing evidence on the intense maritime and fluvial activity in this coastal region. Initial analysis of the distribution of the ships of Heracleion-Thonis and some observations on their constructional peculiarities and on the choice of the building material is proposed. Ship 17 of Heracleion-Thonis is the first vessel to be excavated and is thoroughly analysed in the PhD thesis of A.Belov entitled 'Studies of the Egyptian naval architecture of the Late Period. New archaeological evidence and an attempt at a 3D reconstruction', which will be examined at the University of Bordeaux in autumn 2013. The ship shows many similarities with the description by Herodotus of the Egyptian river-going ship 'baris' (Histories, 2.96, c.450 BC).