Ancient Egyptian Temple Entrance Found in Nile River

Ancient Egyptian Temple Entrance Found in Nile River

Andrew Bossone in Cairo, Egypt
for National Geographic News

May 27, 2008

Archaeologists have discovered a portico, or covered entryway, of an ancient Egyptian temple beneath the surface of the Nile River.

The entryway once led to the temple of the ram-headed fertility god Khnum, experts say.

A team of Egyptian archaeologist-divers found the portico in Aswan while conducting the first-ever underwater surveys of the Nile, which began earlier this year.

"The Nile has shifted, and this part of the temple began to be a part of [the river]," said Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

(Hawass is also a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

Today's Nile obscures many objects from ancient times, and archaeologists believe the underwater excavations will reveal other significant artifacts.

Surviving Time

The massive portico is too large to be removed during the current excavation, but archaeologists removed a one-ton stone with inscriptions that could date from the 22nd dynasty (945-712 B.C.) to 26th dynasty (664-525 B.C.).

The stone itself could be much older, however, because like many objects throughout Egyptian history, the original materials of the Temple of Khnum were reused to construct newer buildings.

A stone found in the Nile River bears inscriptions that could shed light on features surrounding the ancient Temple of Khnum. The stone was found near the recently discovered portico of the temple and could date from the 22nd dynasty (945-712 B.C.) to 26th dynasty (664-525 B.C.).

Photograph courtesy Supreme Council of Antiquities

"In a town that was continuously inhabited, of course [older buildings] were always demolished," said Cornelius von Pilgrim, director of the Swiss Institute of Architectural and Archaeological Research on Ancient Egypt.

"While doing this [demolition], all the architectural elements, all the stones, were used in new houses, new buildings."

The temple of Khnum was first erected in the 12th dynasty (1985-1773 B.C.) or 13th dynasty (1773-1650 B.C.) and was later rebuilt and expanded under subsequent regimes, including by the "female pharaoh" Hatshepsut (1473-1458 B.C.)

Two large columns and more stones of the temple will be removed from the river when excavations resume later this year.

The stones found around the portico of the temple, like the one already taken out of the water, often have inscriptions that describe ancient times.

These inscriptions could contain a precise date of the construction of a nearby feature known as the Nilometer, a basin that ancient officials used to measure seasonal floods and thereby determine taxes.

"In the Nilometer one could see how high the flood was," von Pilgrim said. "And depending on the height of the flood, one could predict how good the harvest would be. And based on this they fixed the taxation."

Khnum's temple was located at a religious, political, military, commercial, and mining center of ancient Egypt, von Pilgrim added.

"This was an enormously important building. It had a major importance for the whole country," he said.

Beneath the Surface

Plans are underway to conduct a complete survey of the Nile from Aswan to Luxor starting in September (see Egypt map).

In continued underwater surveys Egyptian archaeologists expect to find more antiquities in the Nile, not only because of waters that rose throughout the centuries, but also because of accidents and natural disasters that caused objects to fall underwater.

Parts of an ancient Christian church were discovered during this excavation across from Khnum beneath the east bank of the Nile, the team reported.

The archaeologists also believe shipping accidents could have been common given the high volume of traffic in Aswan's harbor. Aswan was a bustling port for the sandstone and the red and black granite quarries that supplied the ancient world with building materials.

In other places in the Nile, excavators such as the 19th-century French archaeologist Auguste Mariette, lost important archaeological objects in the water as they were being shipped to Europe from sites up and down the Nile.

"Auguste Mariette moved obelisks from Dar Abu Naga in Luxor," Hawass said.

"There were two obelisks that were drowned 10 meters (32 feet) opposite the Temple of Karnak. And that is [only] what is known."

© 1996-2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.

Pharaoh Seti I's Tomb Bigger Than Thought

Pharaoh Seti I's Tomb Bigger Than Thought
Andrew Bossone in Cairo, Egypt
for National Geographic News
April 17, 2008

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered that the tomb of the powerful pharaoh Seti I—the largest tomb in the Valley of the Kings—is bigger than originally believed.

During a recent excavation, the team found that the crypt is actually 446 feet (136 meters) in length. Giovanni Battista Belzoni, who discovered the tomb in 1817, had noted the tomb at 328 feet (100 meters).

"[This is] the largest tomb and this is longest tunnel that's ever found in any place in the Valley of the Kings," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

"And we still did not find its end until now," said Hawass, who is also a National Geographic Explorer-In-Residence. (The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News.)

This faience ushabti figure was recently found in the tomb of the pharaoh Seti I, who ruled Egypt from 1313 to 1292 B.C.
Tombs typically contained one of the statues, dedicated to serving the pharaoh's needs in the afterlife, for each day of the year.
Often appearing with crossed arms and an inscription explaining their purpose, the statues were also crafted from wood, alabaster, and limestone.
Photograph courtesy Supreme Council of Antiquities

Uncovering new parts of previously discovered tombs is rare, although not unprecedented.

In 1995, for example, U.S. archaeologist Kent Weeks opened the KV5 tomb that housed the sons of Ramses II—the son of Seti I—and found that it too was larger than expected, with multiple passageways and more than a hundred small chambers.

The tomb of Seti I, who ruled Egypt from 1313 to 1292 B.C. at the apex of its artistic accomplishments, is impressive not only for its size but also for the breadth of art on its walls, experts say. But its size could be expanded even farther by future expeditions.

"The ancient Egyptians never built something without a plan, without an aim or a target to do this, so I think this tunnel [in the tomb of Seti I] will lead to something important," said Mansour Boraik, director of Luxor Antiquities.

Washed Away

Archaeologists also found clay vessels, fragments of the tomb's painted wall reliefs, and a quartzite ushabti figure—a funerary statue—during their search for artifacts and efforts to clear debris.

These objects could have washed into the tunnel during floods starting from the 21st dynasty, between 1090 and 945 B.C., according to archaeologist W. Raymond Johnson, director of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

Pharaohs from the 21st dynasty onward quarried the tombs of their predecessors for their own royal burials, he pointed out.

During this process they rewrapped and reburied the royal dead in hidden cachette tombs, such as that of Amenhotep II, located near the tomb of Seti I.

They also filled in the deep shafts typically cut into the ground of the tomb after the second entry corridor. The shafts—known as wells—were filled in to make removing heavy objects from the tomb easier.

These shafts likely served the ceremonial purpose of establishing a direct connection with the underworld, but also had a practical advantage: flood protection.

"These shafts would catch the rainwater if it did get in the tomb," Johnson said.

"It would catch [rainwater] before it went to the burial chamber and divert it downward. But [many of] these [shafts] got filled in order to drag the sarcophagi out, and they didn't clear them out."

The filled-in shafts left tombs susceptible to flooding from rainwater. Other locations in the Valley of the Kings, such as KV5 and the tomb of Ramses II, show signs of such flooding, Johnson said.

(Related: Surprise Finds at Egypt Temple 'Change Everything'" [December 17, 2007].)

After torrential rains in 1994, the SCA built protective raised edges on the front of all the royal tombs as protection from rainfall.

An All-Egyptian Team

The objects found in the tomb of Seti I would have washed into the tunnel long before the side chamber to the tomb collapsed during excavations nearly 50 years ago by the Abdul Rasul family.

Until the current excavation, the tomb was deemed too dangerous to enter because a small section of the vaulted ceiling of the burial chamber had since collapsed.

The excavation is the first discovery by an all-Egyptian archaeological team in the Valley of Kings. Foreign archaeologists have traditionally led missions in the past two centuries.

The team of five archaeologists and one geologist is also looking for other tombs. They believe they could find the tomb of Ramses VIII (circa 1150 B.C.) near the tomb of Merenptah (1225-1215 B.C.) because ancient graffiti indicates a tomb in that location.

"The Valley of the Kings still has a lot of mysteries and a lot of tombs that need to be excavated," Boraik, of Luxor Antiquities, said. "All of the scholarship has not been exhausted."

© 1996-2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.