Archaeologists Discover ‘City of the Dead’ With Thousands of Mummies

Archaeologists have discovered a ‘City of the Dead’ in Aswan, Egypt near the Mausoleum of Aga Khan IIIending five years of digging. Ultimately, three hundred graves containing ancient mummies were discovered in a 270,000-foot burial ground.

According to Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of EgyptAccording to officials, there are about 36 mummies in each grave, which means there are about 100,000 mummies in the relatively small grave.

The site is thought to have been in use for around 900 years, between the 6th century BC and the 9th century AD, by citizens of the ancient city, then known as Swenett. When it was founded 4,500 years ago, Aswan was a military post and an important trading centre with a huge granite quarry at the foot of the Nile.

“Aswan was a crossroads for centuries,” said Patrizia Piacentini, an archaeologist at the University of Milan. “People came from east to west. People came here because it was the border, products from the south arrived in Aswan and then spread everywhere.”

The ministry estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of the remains belonged to infants and young children who succumbed to diseases such as tuberculosis, anemia and organ disease. Many of the graves were decorated with burial gifts such as pottery and carvings.

“This was a really spectacular find, very unique in Egypt,” Piacentini said. “(The citizens of Aswan) covered the hill with tombs. It’s a kind of City of the Dead.”

Archaeologists first discovered the City of the Dead in 2019, when they unearthed a family of four who lived more than 2,000 years ago. Subsequent excavations uncovered dozens of other graves, and scientists quickly determined that the bodies had been buried according to class, with the society’s most elite buried atop the hill.

The best-preserved mummies are sent to various museums for preservation and display, but most remains are returned to the site where they were found.

“This is their final resting place,” Piacentini explained. “We reveal their story and then we put them back and close the grave. For me, (that) was important from the beginning.”