Mahmoud Afifi, head of the Egyptian antiquities sector at the Ministry of Antiquities, announced in a press statement on Wednesday that the Spanish archaeological mission in Dra’ Abu el-Naga, west of the city of Luxor, has successfully unearthed a funeral garden during the archaeological excavations in the courtyard of one of the tombs of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Moreover, José Galan, the director of the Spanish mission operating on site and research professor at the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid, said that the garden is a small 2-by-3-metre rectangle divided into squares, each with an estimated length of 30 cm. He explained that the garden contained different kinds of plants and flowers, adding that the mission also found in one of the sides of the garden the roots and trunk of a small tree, which dates back to 4000 BC. This is in addition to the bowl containing dates and other fruits, which were probably presented as an offering to the gods. On the other hand, the mission also found a small funeral compartment near the front of the cemetery, which contained three rock funereal stelae dating back to the era of the 13th Dynasty, said Hani Abu-Elezz, head of the ministry’s central department of Upper Egypt.

Source: Daily News Egypt May 04, 2017 07:41 UTC