Archaeologists Discover a 1,800-Year-Old Roman-Era City in Luxor, Egypt

In the center of the southern city of Luxor, a 1,800-year-old complete residential city from the Roman era was found by Egyptian archaeologists, reported first by AFP on Tuesday, Jan.24.

"The Egyptian archaeological mission, headed by the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, succeeded in uncovering a complete residential city from the Roman era, during their archaeological excavation in the Beit Yassi Andraos area, adjacent to the Luxor Temple on the eastern bank," Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities wrote in a Facebook post.

Oldest and Most Significant

According to Mostafa Waziri, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the city is the oldest and most significant one to be located on the eastern bank of Luxor and dates back to the second and third centuries.

Waziri said in a statement that archaeologists found several houses, two pigeon towers-a building intended to keep pigeons or doves-and numerous metal workshops.

The archaeologists also discovered a collection of pots, utensils, and bronze and Roman copper coins in the ancient workshops.

The west bank of Luxor is known for its plethora of tombs and temples, and it is also where the Valley of the Queens and Valley of the Kings is located.

The team has also discovered numerous amphorae, saddles, bronze coins, and archaeological artifacts from various historical times over its prior excavation seasons.

The largest ancient city ever discovered in Egypt, according to the archaeological team, was found on Luxor's west bank in April 2021, when authorities reported the unearthing of a 3,000-year-old lost golden city.

The Grand Egyptian Museum's long-delayed opening at the base of the Giza pyramids is the crowning achievement of the Egyptian government's plans, which aim to increase the number of visitors to Egypt from 13 million per year before the COVID-19 pandemic to 30 million annually by 2028.

Golden Boy Mummy

In related news, radiologists have digitally unwrapped a 2,300-year-old mummified teenage boy that has been kept for a long time in the Cairo museum with the help of computerized tomography (CT) scans.

The digital unwrapping revealed unique items adorning the body as well as traditional Egyptian rites for the dead.

The child was mummified when he died more than a century ago. In 1916, the first set of his remains was found in a Southern Egyptian cemetery inhabited between roughly 332 BCE and 30 BCE.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo received his understudied remains after they were transferred from the cellar where they had been housed.

The radiologists eventually made the decision to examine the remains thoroughly and gave the mummy the name "Golden Boy."

According to the CT scan, 49 amulets were positioned in three columns within the body and between the wrappings. The 21 various designs of the amulets were at least 60% metal, mostly gold.