A 3,000-year-old ‘lost golden city’ has been unearthed in Egypt
Below is a link to the story in today's Washington Post. (hopefully you won't need to subscribe. I'll also, look for other sources).
"Many" (most especially, and as usual, Zahi Hawass , the Indiana Jones of Egypt, the Osiris of antiquities, and the former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs under former President Mubarek 
) are calling it the most significant find in Egypt since the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun (of course that has also been said about other recent discoveries )
Archaeologists started excavating in September in the area between the (mortuary) temples of King Ramses III and Amenhotep III in the Medinet Habu area on the west bank of the Nile across from the modern day city of Luxor. That entire area is filled with mortuary temples (Seti I, Hatshepsut, Thutmoses III, Merenptah, etc., etc. who were buried in elaborate tomb complexes dug deep into the hillsides of the nearby Valley of Kings.)
The original goal of the mission was to find King Tutankhamun’s mortuary temple. They have found nearly intact walls up to 10' high. The site appears to be a treasure trove of findings with rooms littered with numerous tools of daily life. The city, Aten, was active during the reign of Amenhotep III as well as during his co-regency with his son, Amenhotep IV, also known as Akhenaton, the father of Tutankhamun.
Tauck will need to add a week to the Egypt tours just to keep up with all the new discoveries! Of course the situation is similar to the Classic Italy tour- which has been dubbed the "ABC" (Another Beautiful Church) tour.
Comments
I've always heard the B stood for Blasted
And the C is for either Church, Cathedral, or Castle
British, please correct me, but is the B for Bloody (at least that sounds like the English version)
Yep!
While the news of this discovery broke recently, the video of the site seems to indicate that a lot of excavation has already taken place. It would be nice if Tauck can add a bit of this to Jordan & Egypt (at least by October 2022).
As I said above, if you look at the area on Google maps, both map view and satellite view, and zoom in, there are a ton of mortuary temples and other stuff in that area in different stages of excavation and preservation. Until I started looking I didn't fully realize there were so many- temples to the left, temples to the right, Colossi of Memnon, etc., etc. It is like Saqqara and Dahshur- too much- Tauck would need to add several days, and we would need to be able to do more than drive-bys. Heck, we don't "visit" but only do a long range photo stop at the fabulous triple terraced colonnaded temple of Hatshepsut.
The simple map below gives you a quick idea of the area. For more details of this area of Thebes and the west bank with lots of links, see the great little article at this link . In the "official" Egyptian news release (that is all I've seen in news reports) the "Golden City" is located between the (mortuary) temples of King Ramesses III and Amenhotep III (Colossi of Memnon).
I would like to visit one active dig and hear a short presentation by one of the archaeologists actually involved in that dig (the dig seasons are very short however). I would like to hear how they approach a dig, what they look for, what are some of the hints and indications there is more there, etc. etc, and from an anthropology perspective, when and why was the site abandoned.
Also, what happened during the period when Amenhotep IV who later changed his name to Akhenaten, built the new city of Akhetaten/Amarna about 50 miles north and made it his capital. He also briefly forced monotheism (or henotheism) on Egypt devoted to the worship of the god Aten. After Ahkenaten died his son, Tutankhamun moved the capital back to Thebes (Luxor) and restored the old gods.
AlanS please let me know when you’re launching your touring company. I’m signing up!
I don't have a tour company, but evidently have a "people"- the "Alans" were an ancient and medieval Iranian nomadic pastoral people of the Northern Caucasus. A branch of the Alans left the Steppes and headed westward, crossing the Rhine and eventually joined the Vandals before entering the Iberian peninsula. They were later defeated by the Visigoths and eventually crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to North Africa where they founded a powerful kingdom which lasted until its conquest by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I. It sounds like I'm making this stuff up. Seriously, check out the wiki at this link . Who knew?!?!?
Alan I thought of you instantly when I heard about the new lost city. It is very exciting!
I found a decent video of the newly discovered city at this link - it follows NBC’s Molly Hunter as she tours part of the site with Zahi Hawass (as I suspected in my first post he is involved or making it seem so!!!
) As I also suspected it was likely abandoned when Akhenaten moved the capital to Amarna, and was then re-established by his son Tutankhamun. We will be in that area during our J&E tour but will not likely have time to visit, even if parts of it are open. Hawass and others are making a lot of claims as to the importance of the find and are making comparisons to the discovery of Tut's tomb. Only a portion has been excavated so far, but it may actually contribute more to the understanding of daily life in ancient Egypt than any other discovery.
But, you know, many of these ruins and digs aren't nearly as impressive to see as something like the (mostly reconstructed) temple of Hatshepsut, the tombs of Nefartari or Seti 1, or the pyramids, and they only have meaning and become incredible experiences to see when we have excellent guides that Tauck always provides.
I think I need to revise the alternate name for this tour.
Last night while I continued my attempt to more accurately locate the recently discovered city of Aten I also did some research about Thebes (Luxor) and that entire area on the west bank. Last night I was reading articles and watching videos and lectures about the area. One specific especially interesting location got most of my attention- the Medinet Habu complex and funerary temple of Ramses III (see map in my post above). While I strayed from my original quest, I learned a few things.
First, wrt the previously announced discovery of Aten- though it is said to be the largest ancient city ever uncovered in Egypt, the ruins as shown in press releases do not appear to be what we would consider a city today. Though it appears to have been densely populated with many closely packed residential, commercial, and religious structures, it does not appear to cover an area we think of as a city.
The west bank area of Thebes is littered with many, of what has been referred to as funerary or mortuary temples- from modest sized ones to the expansive Ramesseum. But, there are many more than what are annotated on most maps like the one above, and little or no trace remains of most of structures.
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (link) , founded in 1919 and continuing to this day is responsible for the discovery, excavation, and restoration of a number of sites in Thebes and throughout Egypt and the Middle East (along with funding support from the US- government agencies like USAID and private benefactors like the Rockefeller family. One lecture I watched was about the epigraphic studies at Medinet Habu by renown epigrapher Dr. W. Raymond Johnson. He is director of field studies at the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, based at Chicago House in Luxor, Egypt. The mission of the Survey since its founding in 1924 has been to produce photographs and precise line drawings of the inscriptions and relief scenes on major temples and tombs at Luxor for publication. They have been instrumental in helping interpret and reconstruct ancient structures from piles of rubble by piecing together fragments of inscriptions and artwork.
Now back to my first statement- I suggested this is an ABT (Another Beautiful Tomb) tour. Others, due to descriptive or linguistic differences have suggested alternatives to the 'B', e.g. "blasted" or "bloody," but, I must revise my Egypt tour description- to the ABT2 tour- Another Beautiful Tomb and Temple tour.
I found the 'lost city'!
I was able to match the rough location mentioned in the press releases and a few landmarks (building with tall radio tower, small white guardpost(?), power lines, nearby foothills/mountains, etc.), visible in photos and videos, by comparing them with the same or similar landmarks visible in street view photos on Google Maps. I circled the area where they have been digging since last September. According to a few reports it could be much larger and extend in all directions- even as far as Malkata (royal residence of Amenhotep III) 2 km to the SW (see map in my earlier post.)
It is not currently on the Tauck itinerary, but we should drive right by it twice- first on the way to the Valley of Queens and again when we drive from the VOQ to Hatshepsut's temple and the Valley of Kings!! I've circled the location on a Google Earth map:
Our heads will need to be on a swivel on this day of the tour because we only drive by most of these sites which are all clustered in a fairly compact area that includes the Colossi of Memnon/Temple of Amenhotep III, Medinet Habu (Temple of Ramesses III), the Ramesseum (Temple of Ramesses II- the Great), etc. One interesting area we don't visit is the nearby Deir el-Medina, the village where the tomb builders lived.
Yesterday I watched a great video (at this link) about the French dig at Colossi of Memnon and Temple of Amenhotep III. It is in French with English subtitles and some English narration. It was subsequently turned into a docudrama with actors playing the archaelogists. The existing colossi where actually large statues in front of the first pylon of the huge temple complex. Most of the statues for the other two pylons and other statuary have also been uncovered.
4/20/2021 Late update. Look what just popped in Google Maps up when I clicked on the area circled above!
The folks at Google, like their counterparts at Wikipedia are fast!!
You are amazing, Alan! I hope that your trip lives up to your expectations. By the way, you won't need much time at the Colossi of Memnon. It's really nothing more than a photo stop.
Yup, such a shame. According to the video, there is still more there yet to be excavated than what is shown in many (outdated) photos found in sources like Wikipedia. Also, many of the other findings have been dispersed to different museums. In the video the archaeologists raise the question, like elsewhere in Egypt, how much to restore or even erect other than the two already standing, stabilized, but severely damaged colossi.
The colossi are at the end of what was once the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III. During its time it was the largest funerary complex in Thebes. I hope during our tour they are able to find a little more time to do more than just drive-bys- time for additional photo stops at places such as the more complete Medinet Habu, the new digs at Aten, the City of Gold, etc. Judging by the outlines of walls and structures visible in the overhead/satellite photos of this area of the west bank, it is filled with many more barely excavated temples, palaces, etc.- in its day, it must have been the Vegas Strip of Thebes!
It should be interesting to see if Tauck changes or tweaks the itinerary to at least include more photo stops in this area.
As I mentioned above- too many things to see and not enough time, and . . . .as some would say, once you've seen one Egyptian temple ruin, you've seen them all?????
Right? Wrong!! After all, we see the more complete Luxor temple and the Karnak temple complex that morning. It is going to be one busy day!! I wonder how much progress has been made clearing and repairing the Avenue of Sphinxes between Luxor Temple and Karnak?