H.E. Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture, announced that an Egyptian mission will run the first underwater survey project in the River Nile, the survey will take place in the area between Aswan and Luxor, in the coming few months.
Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), stated that the mission would use the recent technological tools for discovering and photographing the artifacts, columns, and obelisks, which have tumbled during their moving from the stone quarry in Aswan to help in building the temples in Luxor such as Luxor temple, Karnak, and Medinet Habu, etc.
Hawass added that in the first season of the survey the Egyptian mission has discovered many important artifacts near the Old Cataract hotel on depth of 40 m. He further stated that a number of vessels and amphorae dated back to the Coptic period were also discovered along with some inscribed fragments dated back to the 26th dynasty. - Source
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Great news. I hope for many more wonderful findings!!
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Part of Ancient Egyptian Fertility Temple Found in Nile
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.
"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."
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