Since the beginning of 2017, almost no week passes by without any new discovery announced by the Ministry of Antiquities. Ten tombs dating back to the late period have been discovered on Thursday in Aswan, Mahmoud Afifi, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Ministry of Antiquities announced on the Ministry’s official Facebook page.
The tombs were discovered near the Aga Khan Mausoleum on Aswan’s western bank by a team of archaeologists on a mission by the ministry.
“The newly discovered tombs have similar architectural designs,” said archaeologist Sayyed Al-Rawi. The tombs’ similarity in design indicates that the tombs are a part of the West Aswan necropolis, which houses a number of tombs for Aswan overseers from the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The necropolis was discovered last century.
They consist of staircases carved into the rock leading to the entrance of the tomb and a simple room where a number of coffins and mummies were found. The mission plans to also study what has been found inside the tombs and do all the needed conservation work in order to restore them. The studying process is planned to start during the next excavation season.
This comes only a couple of days after the ministry offered a collection of archeological replicas to the Museum of African Civilizations in the Republic of Senegal.
The collection contains 23 statues displaying kings and queens of different historical eras, including the head of Queen Nefertiti, a statue of King Akhenaten, and a King Narmer stelae.
The replicas are to be displayed at the permanent Egyptian heritage sector in the museum.
“The main objective of the exhibitions is to extend a bridge of cooperation between Egypt and all African countries in the field of archeology,” said Amr El-Tiby, general director of the Archeological Replicas Unit in the Ministry of Antiquities. He added that they “aim to promote tourism in Egypt and display the great Egyptian civilisation to African communities. The Egyptian civilisation is the cradle of civilisations and a main part of African civilizations.”
