Last week, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) celebrated World Heritage Day for the sixth consecutive year. This year’s celebration was held at the Coptic Museum in Cairo and focused on the fact that the district of Abu-Mina, some 70km southwest Alexandria has been placed on the UNESCO world heritage threatened monuments list.
Abu-Mina was a huge complex of a cathedral and related buildings which were built in the third century AD over the tomb of Saint Mina, one of Diocletian’s army leaders, who died as a Christian martyr in 296AD. It was the biggest and greatest church in Egypt, so imposing that it was likened to the temple of Solomon. It reached the height of its fame in the fifth and in the sixth centuries. The spot became a Christian pilgrimage site and an oasis for visitors crossing the western desert for centuries on end.
Due to the wars and unrest which swept Egypt following the Arab conquest in the seventh century, Abu-Mina fell into disrepair and disuse by the end of the eighth century and only the ruins of the old glory remained.
In the 1960s Pope Kyrillos VI, whose patron saint was St Mina, built a modern monastery close to the site of the old ruins. The monastery has expanded and is today one of the most important monasteries of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Some two decades ago the World Bank financed huge agricultural investment near the area, which led to a considerable rise in the level of underground water, resulting in the collapse of some of the old buildings and threatening others.
Looking for Cleopatra
An Egyptian Dominican archaeological mission has discovered new leads that could help detect the burial place of legendary Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and her Roman lover Mark Antony.
The mission uncovered an alabaster head of the last Queen of Egypt, 22 bronze coins bearing her face, as well as a headless statue of the queen and another mask that may very well belong to Mark Antony, said Zahi Hawwas, secretary-general of SCA.
The most important find made by the expedition, however, was the discovery of a large necropolis outside the temple Taposiris Magna which lies some 50 kilometres west of Alexandria, Hawwas said.
So far 27 tombs and 10 mummies have been unearthed in the area, he said.
Katrine Martinez, who heads the Dominican team, described the find as one of the most important in the 21 century; probably more significant than the discovery of Tut Ankh Amun’s tomb in the last century, she said
The place seems to have been a cemetery for the nobility and senior officials during the Ptolemaic era, three centuries BC, Hawwas explained. Cleopatra, who came to power at the age of 18, was the last of seven queens who bore the same name and the last ruler of Egypt in the Greek era. She was famous for her intelligence, beauty and political deviousness. She married the powerful Julius Caesar and gave birth to his son Caesarion. After Caesar was assassinated on 15 March 44BC, she married Mark Antony who was subsequently defeated by Octavian and committed suicide. Cleopatra took her own life after his death in August 30BC; her death marked the end of the Ptolemaic rule in Egypt, and the beginning of the Roman era.
Painted mummies
Archaeologists working in the oasis of Fayoum some 100km southwest Cairo have found a necropolis containing dozens of brightly painted mummies dating back as far as 4,000 years, Hawwas announced. “The mission found dozens of mummies in 53 rock-hewn tombs dating to the Middle Kingdom” from 2061-1786 BC, he said. According to Hawwas, “Four of the mummies date back to the 22nd Dynasty (931 to 725 BC) and are considered some of the most beautiful mummies found.” The linen-wrapped mummies are painted in the still-bright traditional ancient Egyptian colours of turquoise, terracotta and gold.
The necropolis was uncovered near the Lahun pyramid in Fayoum.
Abdel-Rahman al-Ayedi, who headed the mission, said that a Middle Kingdom funerary chapel with an offering table was also found, and that it was probably used up to the Roman era which lasted from 30 BC to 337AD. The team also found 15 painted masks, along with amulets and clay pots, Hawass added.
Temples in Sinai
Archaeologists exploring an old military road in the Sinai Peninsula have unearthed four new temples amidst the 3,000-year-old remains of an ancient fortified city, SCA officials announced last week.
Among the discoveries was the largest mud brick temple—with an area of 70 x 80 metres—found in Sinai and fortified with mud walls three metres thick, Hawwas said.
The find was made in Qantara, four kilometres east of the Suez Canal. These temples mark the latest discovery by archaeologists digging up the remains of the city on the military road known as Horus Road. Horus is the falcon-headed god, who represented the greatest cosmic powers for ancient Egyptians.
The path once connected Egypt to Palestine and is close to present-day Rafah, which borders the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Archaeologist Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, chief of the excavation team, said the large brick temple could potentially rewrite the historical and military significance of Sinai for the ancient Egyptians.
The temple contains four hallways, three stone purification bowls and colourful inscriptions commemorating Ramses I and II. The grandeur and sheer size of the temple could have been used to impress armies and visiting foreign delegations as they arrived in Egypt, authorities said.
The dig has been part of a joint project with the Culture Ministry that started in 1986 to find fortresses along the Horus military road. Hawass said early studies suggested the fortified city had been Egypt##s military headquarters from the New Kingdom (1569-1081 BC) until the Ptolemaic era, a period lasting about 1500 years.
In a previous find, archaeologists there reported finding the first ever New Kingdom temple to be found in northern Sinai. Studies indicated the temple was built on top of an 18th Dynasty fort (1569-1315 BC).
Last year, a collection of reliefs belonging to King Ramses II and King Seti I (1314-1304BC) were also unearthed along with rows of warehouses used by the ancient Egyptian army during the New Kingdom era to store wheat and weapons.
Abdel-Maqsoud said the fortified city corresponded to the inscriptions of Horus Military Road found on the walls of the Karnak Temple in Luxor which illustrated the features of 11 military fortresses that protected Egypt##s eastern borders. Only five of them have been discovered to date.