Over a month from discovering the Ptolemaic tomb which grabbed the world’s attention for suspecting to have Alexander the Great’s body inside, and at the same governorate of Alexandria, the Ministry of Antiquities announced on Monday discovering an also Ptolemaic graveyard in Alexandria’s western cemetery, while working on building a surrounding iron wall to the railway workshops in Gabal Al-Zaytoun railway station.
The discovery came on the hands of an Egyptian archeological mission.
Ayman Ashwamay, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector stated in a press release that the mission discovered a number of mass graves built inside the rocks describing them as separate rooms, each has stairs that lead into another small hall, which is believed to be a rest for visitors. He also added that the mission unearthed a chamber containing burial recesses and belongings to the dead ones’ family members. The unearthed belongings include decorated lamps, and pottery pots used as offerings buried with the dead.
“The necropolis has been used throughout different long periods,” he said, adding, “most likely it belongs to the paupers.”
Early studies show that the graveyard has no decorations, according to Ashmawy, only simply coloured layers of plaster, “which indicated the social class of the buried people.”
The studies indicate that several generations have been using the necropolis shows some applied amendments in it, including adding some rooms and closing some others.
Remains of human bones were also found at the graveyard, however they were discovered in a “cluttered poor condition” duo wrecking the area, while the railways were constructed during the British colonisation.
