A group of suspected looters unearthed a 3,400-year-old underwater temple buried under a house in the Nile Delta.
The temple, which was found 40km from Cairo in the town of Badrashin, dates from the time of Pharaoh Thutmosis III, one of Egypt’s greatest warrior kings.
Egypt’s antiquities ministry said a team of experts have taken over the excavation, aided by state-owned behemoth the Arab Contractors Company.
Seven men, who discovered the temple in groundwater after digging to a depth of nine metres, were briefly detained but released as the area is not recognised as a heritage site. The evacuation was unauthorised and it is unclear why they were searching the area.
Seven tablets, several column bases and a statue made of pink granite have been unearthed so far, according to antiquities minister Mahmoud al-Damaty.
Archaeologists said inscriptions on the temple walls could unlock new information about Thutmosis III’s kingdom.
The ancient Egyptians sometimes referred to their temples as “houses of eternity” or “mansions of millions of years”, reflecting the fact that many were made of stone and unlikely to perish.
“Modern Egypt is literally stacked on top of old Egypt, so there’s a lot to find,” says Nigel Hetherington, a British archaeologist who has worked extensively on the restoration of Egypt’s heritage.
The sale of Egyptian antiquities has become big business for auction houses and private dealers around the world, with some. artefacts even selling on eBay.
The security vacuum that followed former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow extended to a host of important archaeological sites. Many went unguarded, providing fertile terrain for looters.
Satellite photographs show some 10,000 hastily dug looting pits cratering the country’s archaeological sites. In some places, organised gangs have used dynamite and bulldozers to uncover and steal antiquities, often under the protection of heavily armed guards.
In September last year, the Egyptian government established a department dedicated to tracking the looted items, following criticism over its record on safeguarding the nation’s history.
Source: The Telegraph
