Archaeologists in Egypt unearth 5,000-year-old necropolis with 20 tombs

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced that the Australian archaeological mission working in Ezbit El-Walda area have unearthed a 5,000-year-old necropolis with 20 well-preserved tombs in that site just outside Cairo.

The site in the suburb of Helwan is a host of small plain tombs with larger ones meant for the middle and upper classes, containing alabaster, limestone, clay and copper pots and pans, Hosni said.

The necropolis also contains a limestone relief with early uses of hieroglyphic texts, according to Christian Kohler, head of the Australian team of archaeologists.

It is a duty to protect this magnificent archaeological site from the urban expansion which represents a major threat to (Helwan's) monuments," he said in his report to Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Two large limestone tombs found at the site date back to the Old Kingdom, 2575-2134 B.C. and contain a collection of small chapels and niches. Helwan, some 15 miles south of Cairo, is a densely-populated industrial area located across the Nile River from the Saqqra Pyramid.