Egypt highlights another of its infinite mysteries

There is still a lot of hidden life, if life is a story, in the death that Egypt has protected for thousands of years. 39 years under small veils of land. Five meters, no more, covered the black sarcophagus of granite discovered in Alexandria as the soil was leveled to build a palace. It's a 30-ton grave, of which 15 is the only cover. It remained, perhaps for this reason, intact for more than two thousand years, as experts have dated it at the beginning of the Ptolemaic period, which began in 323 BC, after the storm of Alexander great.

Three decomposed mummies and many mysteries in the grave one meter and 85 meters high, 2 meters long and 65 meters, one meter and 65 meters wide Already: who belonged to these bodies whose water, infiltrated the sarcophagus, prevented it from being better preserved? It seems like they are three slain warriors. They were all soldiers, they would not have deserved the expense and glory of 30 tons of granite. An important and lost story can for the moment only imagine.

According to Mostafa Waziry, who heads the highest archaeological authority in the country, the three do not belong to a Ptolemaic or Roman royal family. Because neither mortuary masks nor amulets, nor statuettes nor inscriptions accompanied them during the journey of the end. There is only one alabaster head, found next to the sarcophagus. It represents, perhaps, the face of one of the buried ones. Subsequent badyzes will determine the age and exact causes of death, tearing meaningful words from the unexpected skulls of mundane metropolitan suburbs.

A real or presumed "curse", like that of Tutankhamen's tomb, against archaeologists and workers who dug. Today, the real curse is another. For tormented Egypt was the blow to the economy of tourism determined by the dramatic events of recent years. But the tourist and archaeological activities mark a liveliness that justifies optimism. Mostafa Waziry recalled that there are currently more than 260 missions to work in the country. In addition to the Egyptians, there are Italian, French, German, Spanish, Belgian, Dutch, American, Polish teams, affiliated with university research centers or scientific badociations also in mixed partnerships. Considering that the Ministry of Antiquities does not only manage pharaonic monuments but Coptic, Islamic, Jewish, there is a good chance of exciting new discoveries of all kinds

They will serve to revitalize tourism, but unfortunately continue to feed the market clandestine antiquarian. The most recent traffic has been discovered with Italy, where the same Waziry has come in recent weeks to report stolen property.

The black sarcophagus of Alexandria was meanwhile emptied and relieved. It will certainly find its accommodation in the museum Mustafa Kamel site with its 30 tons, while being very light, but to fill the world, it is the fascination that other discoveries offer to the intangible museum stories to interrogate.

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