Dating back to the Roman era... Egypt unveils the first complete residential city east of Luxor

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - The Egyptian Archaeological Mission uncovered an entire residential city from the Roman era during excavations, according to a statement published by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on Facebook on Tuesday. The archaeological discovery was found in the “Beit Jesse Andrew” area, adjacent to the Luxor Temple on the eastern side of the city.

The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Mostafa Waziri, stressed the importance of the discovery because it sheds light on the most important and oldest residential city on the eastern side of Luxor Governorate, which is considered an extension of the ancient city of Thebes. During the excavation work, the mission found a number of residential buildings and two pigeon towers from the second and third centuries AD.

The mission also discovered a number of private workshops for manufacturing and smelting metals, containing a number of utensils, water bottles, bottles, pottery lamps (a means of lighting), grinding tools, and Roman coins made of copper and bronze. The Director General of Upper Egypt Antiquities, Fathi Yassin, pointed out that many pottery vessels that were used as pigeon nests were found inside the two discovered pigeon towers.

Preliminary studies showed that it began to be used in the Roman era. It is worth noting that the mission will complete this season’s excavation work in the “Beit Andrews” area in September 2022.

During the previous seasons, the mission uncovered a number of amphorae and lamps from the Byzantine era, in addition to a group of Roman bronze coins, part of a wall dating back to the Roman era, an old storeroom, and a number of archaeological icons belonging to different historical eras. Earlier this month, the joint Egyptian-English mission between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Modern State Research Foundation at the University of Cambridge uncovered a previously unknown royal cemetery in the Luxor area.

It is possible that the discovered tomb belonged to one of the royal wives or princesses during the rule of the Thames, according to what was explained by the head of the mission from the English side, Dr. Pears Lotherland.