Historic Discovery: 7,000-Year-Old Lost City Unearthed In Egypt!

Egypt has uncovered an ancient lost city that is more than 7,000 years old and a cemetery that dates back to 5,316 BCE in the country's southern province of Sohag, according to the country's antiquities ministry.

The Guardian reports that the discovery could be beneficial for the nation's debilitating tourism industry, which has been grossly affected since 2011 when uprising toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Additionally, further debacle came in the form of the bombing of a Russian plane that was flying 224 passengers from a Red Sea resort in October 2015.

As per a report in the Egypt Independent, the head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector Mahmoud Afify has said that the newly found lost city in Abydos may have been the abode of high-ranking officials and grave builders during its days of glory. Experts say that Abydos was Egypt's capital during the end of the predynastic period and rule of the first four dynasties and therefore the recently unearthed ancient city may provide new insights into the region's past. So far 15 huge graves, iron tools, pottery remains and huts have been uncovered by the research team of archaeologists.  

"The size of the graves discovered in the cemetery is larger in some instances than royal graves in Abydos dating back to the first dynasty, which proves the importance of the people buried there and their high social standing during this early era of ancient Egyptian history," the ministry said. The ancient city is near present day Luxor across the Nile and is located 400 meters away from the Mortuary Temple of Seti I, a period memorial that belongs to the New Kingdom period.

Tourism has always been one of the mainstays of the economy in Egypt, a sector that has been seen dwindling after the uprising and plane bombing incidents. According to a report in The Guardian, the total number of tourists in Egypt went down from 14.7 million in 2010 to 9.8 in 2011, a figure that has reached a further low recently. The first quarter of 2016 saw only 1.2 million visitors to the country, compared to the 2.2 million a year before.