Egyptology

CAIRO (Reuters) - Builders laying the foundations for a mosque in northeast Cairo found a tomb dating from the Pharaonic period intact but submerged in ground water up to the ceiling of the tomb, official sources said Sunday.

The tomb contains an unopened basalt sarcophagus, slivers of gold dedicated to the ancient Egyptian gods Isis and Horus, and inscriptions showing the tomb belonged to a man called Ankh Khansu Derat Hor, the official news agency MENA said.
It also has the four Canopic jars in which ancient Egyptians tried to preserve the liver, stomach, lungs and intestines.
The head of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said the tomb dated from the New Kingdom, which lasted from the 16th to the 11th century BC.
"The walls of the tomb are beautifully inscribed, with reliefs, so I think it could be an important person. The problem is the water table," he told Reuters.
Egyptian archaeologists are thinking of ways to move the whole tomb to higher ground, out of the water, he added.
At a separate site at the ancient town of Akhmim in southern Egypt, while digging foundations for a religious school, workers found remains of an ancient temple and pieces of a giant statue of the pharaoh Ramses II, MENA said.
Ramses II, who ruled the country for much of the 13th century BC, was one of ancient Egypt's most prolific builders.
The full statue would be 40 feet tall and the head alone weighs about two tons, it added.
The antiquities authorities plan to clear a modern cemetery to allow for more excavation work, it said.