Team of Egyptian archeologists make this remarkable find called “the largest’ ancient city ever uncovered in Egypt.
The “Lost Golden City” has been recovered in Egypt. An ancient city located in the desert outside Luxor that dates back to a golden age of the pharaohs 3,000 years ago, CBS News reported.
The stunning find was uncovered by a team of archeologists who said it was the largest ancient city ever uncovered in Egypt. Betsy Bryan, a professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement it was the "second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun" nearly a century ago, CBS reported.
Prominent Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, who led the Egyptian mission, announced the discovery in a statement on Thursday on the legendary Valley of the Kings that was lost under the sands.
“Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it,” Hawass said.
The city that was lost under the sands is 3,000 years old and dates to the reign of Amenhotep III, and continued to be used by Tutankhamun and Ay, the statement said.
In September 2020, the team began excavations between the temples of Ramses III and Amenhotep III near Luxor, some 300 miles south of Cairo. Within weeks of the digging, formations of mud brick began to appear in all directions, the statement said.
After seven months of excavations, several neighborhoods were uncovered, including a bakery complete with ovens and storage pottery, as well as administrative and residential districts.
"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,” the statement said.
The team said the archaeological layers have laid untouched for thousands of years, left by the ancient residents as if it were yesterday.
Bryan said 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.”
Members of the team said they were optimistic that further important finds would be revealed, and they expect to uncover untouched tombs filled with treasures. They had already discovered groups of tombs reached through "stairs carved into the rock," a similar construction to those found in the Valley of the Kings, the statement added.
Last week, Egypt has another celebration when they transported the mummified remains of 18 ancient kings and four queens across Cairo from the iconic Egyptian Museum to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in a procession dubbed the "Pharaohs' Golden Parade.”
The group included kings and queens from the 17th to the 20th dynasties of ancient Egypt Among the 22 bodies were those of Amenhotep III and his wife Queen Tiye, the statement said.
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