'Entire Roman city' discovered near Luxor, Egypt

The remains of

have been discovered in Luxor.

According to the Ministry of Antiquities, it is "a whole residential city" from the 2nd and 3rd centuries, discovered

, about 500 km south of Cairo.

In this

have already been unearthed

with numerous tools and

, explains Mostafa Waziri, patron of Antiquities, specifying that

.

Already in 2021, an Egyptian archaeological mission discovered the "largest ancient city in Egypt", dating back more than 3000 years, on the west bank of Luxor, where the famous Valleys of the Kings and Queens are located.

In recent months, Egypt has revealed several major discoveries, mainly in the necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, but also, in January in Luxor, that of a tomb of a royal wife of the 18th dynasty, that of 'Akhenaton and Tutankhamun, dating from 3500 years ago.

For some experts, these announcement effects have a political and economic significance more than a scientific one.

Read alsoThe water crisis threatens Egypt

The country, in serious economic crisis, is counting on tourism to straighten out its finances: its government is aiming for 30 million tourists a year by 2028, compared to 13 million before Covid-19.

To boost this sector at half mast since the Arab Spring in 2011, which employs two million people and generates more than 10% of GDP, Cairo has been promising for months the imminent opening of its

, near the plateau of Giza.

Many predicted this in 2022, for the bicentenary of the deciphering of the Rosetta Stone by the Frenchman Jean-François Champollion and the centenary of the discovery of the tomb of the child-pharaoh Tutankhamun.