Moharram Bek excavation documents urban life from the Ptolemies to the Byzantines

A rescue excavation by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Moharram Bek, within the Downtown District, has uncovered a distinguished set of archaeological and architectural elements tracing the city’s urban life from the Ptolemaic era through the Roman to the Byzantine.

The finds include marble statuary of the deities Bacchus and Asclepius and a statue provisionally identified as Minerva; a circular public bath of late-Ptolemaic “tholos” type; the remains of a Roman villa with a bathing basin served by an integrated water-management system; rare mosaic floors in the Opus Tessellatum and Opus Sectile techniques; and coins, oil lamps, pottery and parts of sealed amphorae.

Dr Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the results fill an important gap in the south-eastern sector of the ancient city. Ibrahim Mostafa, head of the archaeological mission, said preliminary restoration has begun and the display of key pieces at the Graeco-Roman Museum is under study.

Sources: Ahram Online gate; Al-Gomhuria.