Egypt’s most famous archaeologist on Saturday released further details about a pharaonic city recently found in the southern province of Luxor. Zahi Hawass said archaeologists found brick houses, artifacts and tools from the Pharaonic period on the site of the city 3000 year old lost city.
The city dates from Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty, whose government became a golden era for ancient Egypt.
“It really is a big city that has been lost … The inscription in it says that the city was called ‘The Brilliant Athens,'” Hawass told reporters.
Mohamed Elshahed / AP
Archaeologists excavated the area last year and searched for the body of the boy King Tutankhamun. Within a few weeks, however, they found mudstone formations that ended up being a large city that was well preserved.
It is said that city walls and even rooms are filled with ovens, pottery and utensils used in daily life. Archaeologists also found human remains visible to reporters and visitors on Saturday.
“We found three major districts, one for administration, one for workers to sleep in, one for industry and (a) area for dried meat,” said Hawass, who spoke to reporters on the site as he iconic Indiana Jones hat worn.
He said he believed the city had been ‘the most important discovery’ since the Tutankhamun’s tomb was excavated almost intact in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor in 1922.
Zahi Hawass Center for Egyptology via AP
Paola Cartagena, a graduate student in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, said the discovery was ‘of great importance’.
“Archaeological settlements are extremely valuable for learning true historical facts and broaden our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians lived,” she wrote on Twitter.
The recently excavated city is located between the temple of King Rameses III and the colossi of Amenhotep III on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor. The city is still used by the grandson Tutankhamun of Amenhotep III, and then his successor King Ay.
Some mudstones bear the seal of King Amenhotep III’s cartouche, or insignia.
Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt between 1391 BC and 1353 BC, built the main sections of the Luxor and Karnak temples in the ancient city of Thebes.
Egypt has sought publicity for its archaeological discoveries in hopes of reviving its tourism sector, which was hit hard by the post-2011 uprising, and now the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement comes a few days after Egypt moved 22 of its esteemed royal mummies to their new resting place in a gala parade – the newly opened National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.