After two years of intensive archaeological efforts, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the completion of the “Revival of the Ancient City of Gold” program, which led to the discovery, documentation, and preservation of a 3,000-year-old gold processing complex in the Sukari Mountain area, southwest of Marsa Alam city in the Red Sea Governorate.
According to Enikos, the project included archaeological excavation work, photographing, documenting, and restoring the architectural elements found, relocating them to a safe area three kilometers north of the original site, beyond active mining operations.
The complex dates from as early as 3,000 years ago during the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt, a time characterized by decline and political instability. According to HeritageDaily, the Third Intermediate Period coincided with the Late Bronze Age collapse, which saw the downfall of civilizations across the ancient Near East and Eastern Mediterranean, including the onset of the Greek Dark Ages.
The Sukari Gold Mine, where the site is located, is one of the largest gold mines in the world. In 2021, Centamin Company was granted new exploration areas after announcing the first phase of the global gold bidding for 2020. The new areas granted to Centamin include 19 licenses and cover more than 3,000 square kilometers in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Dr. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, the Egyptian Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, stated that the excavation work unveiled remains of miners’ houses, workshops, mining places, places of worship, administrative buildings, and Ptolemaic baths, as well as the remnants of a mining camp dating back more than three thousand years. “This discovery is crucial for understanding the advanced mining techniques applied by the ancient Egyptians,” said Dr. Khaled, according to Enikos.
The excavations revealed a complex gold processing system, including specialized factories for extracting the precious metal from quartz veins. The factory included facilities for crushing, grinding, and pulverizing quartz stone, as well as settling and purification basins and furnaces for smelting and extracting gold. This thorough process involved crushing and grinding the quartz, filtering and settling in special basins, and melting the quartz in clay furnaces to extract pure gold.
An associated residential district was also uncovered, serving as the home for gold miners and workers in the complex. Findings related to the daily life of ancient miners included a collection of pottery vessels used in daily life for perfumes, medicines, and incense burners. Additionally, a number of bronze coins from the Ptolemaic era, five offering tables from the same period, and jewelry made from precious stones such as beads and decorative tools made from worked shells were discovered.
The excavation uncovered architectural elements from the Roman and Islamic eras, indicating that the site remained active for at least 1,000 years and was used in later periods. A collection of archaeological finds was discovered, including 628 ostraca with writings in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek scripts, verifying the historical and archaeological importance of Egypt.
A modern visitor center was built, equipped with large high-resolution display screens showing the stages of the project and detailed images from the excavation process, including the discovered statues, vessels, and other artifacts. The visitor center includes a collection of informational and educational panels that tell the story of the site, including the history of the area and the context of gold mining in Egypt.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.
This article was originally published at www.jpost.com
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