The 3000-year-old ‘lost golden city’ of Luxor discovered in Egypt

CAIRO.- While Egypt still had its head in the solemn procession of mummies last Saturday in Cairo, a local archaeological mission announced on Thursday the discovery of what is considered to be the largest ancient city ever to be found in the country, and which has been hidden under the sands of Luxor to the south for 3,000 years. The city, apparently called The Rise of Aten, was founded by Pharaoh Amenhotep III, the ninth king of the 18th Dynasty, who ruled Egypt from 1391 BC to 1353 BC, and was the largest administrative colony and industrialist of the time in the region, according to Zawi Hawass, Egypt’s most famous archaeologist and head of mission, in a statement.

The place, which also became known as the “Lost Golden City,” continued to function during the reigns of Tutankhamun and Ay. “This is the most important find after Tutankhamun’s tomb”, Hawass assured El País.

The area in which the Pharaonic city was found is between the temple of Amenhotep III at Memnon, west of the modern city of Luxor, and the temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, another archaeological site located on the bank of the Nile in front of Luxor. The Egyptian mission began work at this point in search of Tutankhamun’s mortuary temple. “Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it “Hawass said in his statement.

Excavation work began in September 2020, and within weeks the mission began digging up mud brick formations in all directions that belonged to the ancient city, which remain in good condition and include walls almost complete. Since then, several neighborhoods or neighborhoods have been discovered. “The streets of the city are lined with houses, some with walls up to three meters high”writes Hawass, who believes that the city stretches west “as far as the famous Deir El Medina”, an important city of workers and craftsmen in ancient Egypt.

The Hawass team was also able to identify some of the buildings in the city. Yes indeed, in the southern part was found a bakery and a food preparation area with ovens and storage ceramics that because of its size, they consider it to have provided “a large number of workers”. Another part, still half uncovered, corresponds to the administrative and residential area, with larger and well-appointed buildings, and is surrounded by a zigzag-shaped wall with a single entrance that leads to interior corridors and residential areas, probably for safety.

In a third area, a workshop has been unearthed which has a room intended for the production of mud bricks used for the construction of temples, and another of foundry molds to produce charms and decorative elements. In the north, a cemetery was found, yet to be determined, in which several tombs with characteristics similar to those in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Nobles were found, and where the mission hopes to find some intact. full of treasures. Throughout the city, in addition, tools used in some industrial activities such as spinning and weaving, and remains of metal and glass have been found, but the area in which these activities were carried out has not yet been discovered.

To date of the settlement, an objective which was among the first of the mission, the team led by Hawass has relied on several objects. One of them was the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the clay lids of the wine containers, with historical references which point out that the colony consisted of three royal palaces of Amenhotep III and the administrative and industrial center of the empire. at the time. Items such as rings, beetles, colorful ceramic pots and previous clay bricks, all with stamps from the hieroglyphic cartouche of the same pharaoh, confirm the date. A more recent find, corresponding to the container of a vessel that held two gallons (equivalent to about 10 kilograms) of dried or boiled meat, contained a valuable inscription which asserts that the city was active at that time.

“What will have to be discovered, as the work is done, is how this city and its remarkable industrial facilities connect with the palace of Amenhotep III in Malkata, which is located to the south and west of the concession. If it is clear that this new city, incredibly well preserved, is part of the palace complex, it can surely be compared in size to Amarna, ”says Betsy Brian, professor of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and specialist in the Amenhotep III period. “If it turns out to be something like Deir El Medina, it is a very significant find”, approves, in statements to this media, Campbell Price, curator of the Egypt and Sudan section of the Manchester Museum.

Among the most surprising aspects of the mission’s discovery so far is the grave of a person found with arms outstretched to their sides and the remains of a rope wrapped around their knees, representing a location and a “rather strange” position which is under investigation.

The most intriguing element, however, is probably an earth seal whose inscriptions you can read. “Gm pa Aton”, which can be translated, depending on the Hawass version, as “The domain of the dazzling Aten”, which is precisely the name of a temple built by the pharaoh Akhenaton – successor of Amenhotep III – in Karnak, today Luxor. The story says that a year after this ship the city was abandoned, a note that raises many questions, as if it really happened like this, why and if it was repopulated later when Tutankhamun returned to the region. “Only new excavations will reveal what really happened 3,500 years ago,” the statement concluded.

El País, SL

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