Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities has announced that an Egyptian archaeological mission currently working to lower the high groundwater level at the Kom Ombo Temple in Aswan has discovered two ancient sandstone stelae at Kom-Ombo Temple in Aswan, Upper Egypt.
According to Mustafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the first stele measures 2.30m long and one metre wide, and belongs to the Pharaoh Seti I of the 19th Dynasty, who ruled Egypt from 1290 to 1279 BC, while the other one meausres 3.25m long and 1.15m wide, and belongs to King Ptolemy IV who ruled Egypt from 221 to 204 BC during the Hellenistic era. Both measure 30cm thick.
“The first stele was found broken into two pieces but the drawings and inscriptions were still in good condition, while the second was found broken into several pieces but our restoration team has restored and assembled them,” Mr Waziri said.
Muhammad Abdel-Badie, Head of the Central Administration of Upper Egypt, said that the first painting shows Seti I standing in front of the ancient Egyptian gods Horus and Sobek, with the ‘Winged Sun’ above as a symbol of protection. Below, there are 26 lines of script in the Hieroglyphic in which the name of King Horemheb was mentioned several times. Horemheb was the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled for 14 years somewhere between 1319 BC and 1292 BC.
“As for the second,” Abdel-Muniem Saeed, General Manager of Aswan and Nubia explained, “it portrays King Ptolemy IV, stands and holding a rod with a tip shaped as the deity Horus; standing behind him his sister-wife Arsinoe III, and before him the triad of the temple ‘Hurr’, ‘Tenet Nefer’, and ‘Neb Tawi’, with the sun above and 28-line hieroglyphic text below.
Watani International
2 October 2018