A team of archeologists has unearthed a city buried under the sands of Egypt that has lain “untouched for thousands of years, left by the ancient residents as if it were yesterday,” the team said in a statement Thursday.
The team said after weeks of removing sand they found “a large city in a good condition of preservation, with almost complete walls, and with rooms filled with tools of daily life.”
The discovery of the lost city of Aten, near Luxor, home to the Valley of the Kings, is the “second most important archeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun,” Betsy Bryan, a Johns Hopkins University professor of Egyptian art and archaeology, said in the statement.
Aten “will give us a rare glimpse into the life of the Ancient Egyptians at the time where the empire was at . . . (its) wealthiest,” Bryan said.
Renowned Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass led the excavation team. “Many foreign missions searched for this city and never found it,” he said.
The archaeologists believe the city was an administrative and industrial settlement, dating back to the reign of Amenhotep III, who ruled the country from 1391 to 1353 B.C. The team also believe that Aten was eventually used by Tutankhamen and his successor, King Ay.
