It’s greatest find since King Tut: pro
Archaeologists gave a tantalizing tour Saturday of a 3,000-year-old city in Egypt described by experts as the most important discovery there since King Tut’s tomb in 1922.
Famed Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass announced the discovery of the “lost golden city” in the southern province of Luxor, about 300 miles south of the capital, Cairo, on Thursday, and on Saturday, he offered reporters more details on the stunning find.
“This is really a large city that was lost ... The inscription that was found inside here says that this city was called: ‘The dazzling Aten’,” Hawass said at the site.
The archaeologist found the find the most significant since the tomb of King Tut — known formally as the young pharaoh Tutankhamun — was unearthed in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor nearly fully intact in 1922.
A team of archaeologists looking in the area for the mortuary temple of Tut began excavating in September at the site, which is between the temples of Ramses III and Amenhotep III.
They soon found brick formations that turned out to be the remains of an entire city.
“Within weeks, to the team’s great surprise, formations of mud bricks began to appear in all directions,” said a statement released by the team. “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.”
“We found three major districts, one for administration, one for the workmen to sleep, one for the industry and [an] area for dried meat,” Hawass told reporters.
Colored pottery vessels, jewelry, utensils used in daily life and mud bricks bearing the seals of King Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt from 1391 to 1353 B.C., were found at the site.
“The archaeological layers have laid untouched for thousands of years, left by the ancient residents as if it were yesterday,” the statement read.
The team also found human remains, which were visible to visitors on Saturday.
The city is located on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor. Experts believe it continued to be used by the grandson of Tutankhamun, Amenhotep III, and his successor King Ay.
Betsy Bryan, a professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement that the city “will give us a rare glimpse into the life of the Ancient Egyptians at the time where the empire was at his wealthiest.”
According to Daily News Egypt, the team will continue to work in the site, where they expect to find untouched tombs filled with treasures.