After two years of hard work, the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt has completed the “Revival of the Ancient City of Gold” project in Sukari Mountain, southwest of Marsa Alam city in the Red Sea Governorate, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Tuesday.
The project was implemented in cooperation with the management of the Sukari Mine, following the necessary legal and administrative measures to transfer the archaeological mining camp, and obtaining the approval of the Permanent Committee for Egyptian Antiquities.
A simulation of the camp’s original site was made on an area of six acres, and a visitor center was built with large screens displaying the stages of the project’s work and pictures of the statues, pots and other artifacts that were discovered, in addition to a group of informative panels about the history of the region.
The project involved archaeological excavation, photographing, documenting and restoring the architectural elements that were found in the camp site and transferring them to another safe area three kilometers north of the old site and outside the path of modern mining operations at the Sukari Mine.
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy expressed his pleasure with the discoveries made at the site, which provide further insights into the region’s history.
He assured that this project comes out of the ministry’s keen desire to protect and preserve Egypt’s ancient history.
The secrets of an ancient mine
The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mohamed Ismail Khaled, explained that the excavation work resulted in the discovery of the remains of a mining camp dating back to over 3,000 years ago.
According to Khaled, the mine included the remains of an integrated factory for extracting gold from the veins of marble, crushing, grinding quartz stone, passing through filtration and sedimentation basins until the smelting stage in pottery ovens and extracting gold.
The site also included the remains of miner homes, workshops, mining sites, places of worship, administrative buildings and Ptolemaic baths, he said, alongside architectural remnants from the Roman and Islamic eras.
According to Khaled, numerous artifacts were also discovered including 628 ostraca with writings in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek, and a number of bronze coins from the Ptolemaic era.
A large collection of terracotta statues of human and animal figures from the Greco-Roman era, small stone statues, some of which are incomplete, of Bastet and Harpocrates, and five offering tables from the Ptolemaic era were also found.
Khaled added that a collection of pottery vessels of different sizes, shapes, and uses were also amongst the discovered relics, including used in daily life, perfumes, medicines, and incense burners, in addition to a collection of beads made of precious stones and decorative tools made of crafted shells.
According to the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, this discovery has served as an invaluable addition to better understanding the technology used by ancient Egyptians to extract gold from rocks, while also providing insights into the social, religious, and economic life of miners operating within the industrial cities of the Eastern Desert throughout the ages.
