A LOST Ancient Egyptian city has been uncovered after 3,000 years and experts have hailed it the most “important discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun”.
The ‘Golden City of Luxor’ has just become the “the largest” ancient city ever found in Egypt.
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Famous Egyptologist Zahi Hawass announced that the city had been discovered near Luxor, home of the Valley of the Kings.
An official statement said: “The Egyptian mission under Dr. Zahi Hawass found the city that was lost under the sands.
“The city is 3,000 years old, dates to the reign of Amenhotep III, and continued to be used by Tutankhamun and Ay.”
Betsy Bryan, Professor of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, said the city discovery was the “second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun”
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As well as the the city streets and evidence of buildings, lots of artefacts and even skeletal remains have been discovered.
The team found precious jewellery, scarab beetle amulets and coloured pottery.
The ‘Golden City of Luxor’ was mentioned in ancient texts, which led many experts to try and search for it over the years.
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Excavations at the correct site began in September 2020.
The city was found between the temples of Ramses III and Amenhotep III near Luxor.
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It’s about 300 miles from the capital city of Cairo.
The excavators statement said: “Within weeks, to the team’s great surprise, formations of mud bricks began to appear in all directions.
“What they unearthed was the site of a large city in a good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and with rooms filled with tools of daily life.”
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It took about seven months to uncover several neighbourhoods within the ancient city.
There’s even evidence of an ancient Egyptian bakery complete with ovens.
Experts also think they’ve found homes and an administrative district.
The statement added: “The archaeological layers have laid untouched for thousands of years, left by the ancient residents as if it were yesterday.”
The site gives us an idea of what Ancient Egypt was like at its wealthiest.
Continued excavations will look into tombs at the site so we can learn more about the residents of the city.
A brief history of Ancient Egypt
Here’s everything you need to know…
- The Ancient Egyptians were an advanced civilisation who at one point ruled over a huge portion of the globe
- The civilisation was founded about 5,000 years ago when ancient people set up villages along the River Nile
- It lasted for about 3,000 years and saw the building of complex cities centuries ahead of their time – as well as the famous Great Pyramids
- The Ancient Egyptians were experts at farming and construction
- They invented a solar calendar, and one of the world’s earliest writing systems: The hieroglyph
- The Egyptians were ruled by kings and queens called pharaohs
- Religion and the afterlife were a huge part of Ancient Egyptian culture. They had over 2,000 gods
- Pharaohs built huge elaborate tombs to be buried in, some of which were pyramids – at the time among the largest structures in the world
- The Egyptians believed in life after death, and important people’s corpses were mummified to preserve their bodies for the afterlife
- The Ancient Egyptian empire fell in 30BC due to a mix of factors, including wars with other empires and a 100-year period of drought and starvation
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In other archaeology news, an unearthed stone slab dating back to the Bronze Age may represent Europe’s oldest map.
A new study claims to finally provide some answers to why a 17th century bishop was buried with a foetus.
And, the graves of 50 slaves who were forced to build an elite Roman villa in the UK have been unearthed.
What do you make of the ‘lost Golden City of Luxor’? Let us know in the comments…
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
