The transfer of a newly discovered archaeological tomb

CAIRO – 25 July 2017: The archaeological mission headed by Ahmed Shoeib has finished the work pertaining the transfer of the archaeological tomb discovered in El Husseiniya city in Sharqia governorate.

Ayman Ashmawi, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Department in the Ministry of Antiquities declared that this cemetery was discovered while making archaeological plasters in the area at the request of a citizen who wanted to expand his house, located next to the piece of land where the cemetery was discovered.

‘’The tomb discovered is a rocky tomb built on top of a mound consisting of a group of stone blocks indicating that it was carved in the mountain elsewhere and then transferred during the successive Pharaonic times to its current place,’’ explained Ghareeb Sonbol the head of the central administration of restoration.

Sonbol added that the tomb is a single block of rock weighing about 65 tons. Inside the tomb was found a stone coffin made of either basalt or diorite, in addition to the remains of hieroglyphic text engraved on one of its wall.

“The cemetery was first discovered in the 1950s by the English scientist Flanders Petrie, but was covered with sand until it was rediscovered now,’’ Ashmawi said.