A joint Egyptian-German archaeological mission revealed more remains of a temple in the Matareya area, east of Cairo, while completing excavations at the Obelisk Museum, which is open from the western, northern and southern sides, in the ancient Egyptian city of “On”, which was later known as (Heliopolis).
“On” was an important religious center in ancient Egypt and was famous for the presence of a large number of columns and large obelisks, and it contains tombs dating back to the Old Kingdom, such as the tombs of “Banhsi” and “Khonsu Ankh”.
The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said, in a statement today, Thursday, that the joint mission between the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the German University of Leipzig succeeded in uncovering a succession of white mortar floors and mud-brick buildings dating back to the second half of the first millennium BC.
The statement added that what was found indicates that there was stability in this part of the temple during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.
The statement quoted Mostafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, as saying that the mission is scheduled to complete the excavation work during the coming seasons to study and document what has been revealed, in addition to the excavation work in the area surrounding the open museum of the obelisk.
For his part, Ayman Ashmawy, head of the Egyptian antiquities sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities and head of the mission from the Egyptian side, stated that the mission succeeded during its current excavation season in uncovering a number of quartzite sarcophagi from the era of King “Horemheb” of the eighteenth dynasty and others of the king. “Psamtik II” from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, made of Jerywaka stone, in addition to parts of a royal statue whose owner has not been identified yet, but its artistic features are likely to be from the Middle Kingdom or the Second Intermediate Period.
The mission, which has been operating in the Matareya area since 2012, succeeded during the past excavation season in uncovering parts of the remains of the temple, along with a large number of statues dating back to different eras of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
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