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A tomb discovered underground among residential homes in the town of al-Husseiniya in the governorate of al-Sharqiya east of the Nile Delta has been hauled and transferred to the archaeological warehouse in San al-Hagar, Sharqiya.
Ayman Ashmawi, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Department in the Ministry of Antiquities declared that the tomb was discovered while making an archaeological investigation of the spot at the demand of a man who had wished to build on that land an annex to his house that lies adjacent to it. When he started to dig in order to build the foundation of the new annex, he found unusual elements that made him suspect the land might include some ancient structure.
Upon digging, the antiquity authorities uncovered a rock-hewn tomb supported on top of a mound of stone blocks. This, according to Gharib Sonbol, head of the central administration for restoration, indicated that the tomb had been carved in the mountain elsewhere then transferred during successive Pharaonic times to its current location. Mr Sonbol explained that the tomb was a single block of rock weighing about 65 tons. The tomb included a stone coffin made of basalt or diorite, also hieroglyphic text engraved on one of its wall.
The tomb was disassembled and moved to the archaeological warehouse for study and restoration. It is not yet known to which era or to whom the tomb belonged.
“The tomb was first discovered in the 1950s by the British archaeologist Flinders Petrie, but was covered with sand over the years until it was rediscovered now,’’ Mr Ashmawi said.