33 Ancient Tombs Discovered in Southern Egypt

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of 33 ancient tombs dating back to the late Pharaonic era and the Greek and Roman eras, around the "Aga Khan Mausoleum" in Aswan Governorate in the south of the country.

The ministry explained in a statement: "The joint Egyptian-Italian archaeological mission working around the Aga Khan Mausoleum west of Aswan succeeded in uncovering a number of previously unknown family tombs dating back to the late and Greco-Roman eras."

The statement quoted Ayman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, as saying that "the number of discovered tombs is about 33, all from the late era and the Greek and Roman eras."

The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mohamed Ismail Khaled, said in a press statement that this discovery is important, as it adds a new history to the Aga Khan area, especially since some of the discovered tombs still contain parts of mummies and remains of funerary tools, which contributed to knowing more information about that period and some of the diseases prevalent during it, and it also indicates the discovery of more tombs in the area.

Abdel Moneim Saeed, General Supervisor of Antiquities in Aswan and Nubia and Director of the Archaeological Mission from the Egyptian side, stated that among what was discovered inside the tombs were a number of mummies, including the mummy of an adult, perhaps a woman, and a child who likely died at the age of one or two years, and the two bodies are still stuck together inside a stone coffin, which the mission will study in the coming period to determine the relationship between them, according to Agence France-Presse.

He pointed out that through these evidences, it is likely that the middle class of the inhabitants of Aswan Island were buried in this part of the cemetery, while the upper part of the cemetery was allocated for the burial of the upper class.

The Late Period began more than 2,700 years ago during the reign of the 26th Pharaonic Dynasty and lasted more than 400 years, followed by the Greek and Roman eras.

According to the statement, Professor of Egyptian Archaeology at the University of Milan and Director of the Mission from the Italian side, Patrizia Piacenti, said that preliminary studies indicate that among the mummies "some died at a young age and some died as newborns until adulthood, and some of them suffered from infectious diseases."

In the past few years, Egypt has announced several archaeological discoveries across the country, especially in the Saqqara area west of Cairo, the most prominent of which was the discovery of more than 150 ancient coffins in 2022 dating back more than 2,500 years.