43 million year old fossil of previously unknown four legged whale found in Egypt
Scientists said on Wednesday they had discovered the 43 million-year-old fossil of a previously unknown amphibious four-legged whale species in Egypt that helps trace the transition of whales from land to sea.
43 million-year-old fossil of previously unknown 4-legged whale found in Egypt
The newly discovered whale belongs to the Protocetidae, a group of extinct whales that falls in the middle of that transition, the Egyptian-led team of researchers said in a statement.
Its fossil was unearthed from middle Eocene rocks in the Fayum Depression in Egypt’s the Western Desert — an area once covered by the sea that has provided a rich seam of discoveries showing the evolution of whales — before being studied at Mansoura University Vertebrate Palaeontology Centre (MUVP).
The new whale, named Phiomicetus Anubis, had an estimated body length of some three meters (10 feet) and a body mass of about 600 kg (1,300 lb), and was likely a top predator, the researchers said. Its partial skeleton revealed it as the most primitive protocetid whale known from Africa.
Laid out on a tray are parts of the 43 million-year-old fossil of a previously unknown four-legged amphibious whale called “Phiomicetus Anubis”, which helps trace the transition of whales from land to sea, which were discovered in the Fayum Depression in the Western Desert of Egypt.
“Phiomicetus Anubis is a key new whale species, and a critical discovery for Egyptian and African palaeontology,” said Abdullah Gohar of MUVP, lead author of a paper on the discovery published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The whale’s genus name honours the Fayum Depression and the species name refers to Anubis, the ancient canine-headed Egyptian god associated with mummification and the afterlife.
Despite recent fossil discoveries, the big picture of early whale evolution in Africa has largely remained a mystery, the researchers said.
Work in the region had the potential to reveal new details about the evolutionary transition from amphibious to fully aquatic whales.
With rocks covering about 12 million years, discoveries in the Fayum Depression “range from semiaquatic crocodile-like whales to giant fully aquatic whales”, said Mohamed Sameh of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, a co-author.
The new whale has raised questions about ancient ecosystems and pointed research towards questions such as the origin and coexistence of ancient whales in Egypt, said Hesham Sellam, founder of the MUVP and another co-author.
South Africa’s Bandit Slaves And The Rock Art Of Resistance
Not all South African rock art is ancient; some dates back to the colonial period – and was created by runaway slaves. It tells a remarkable story.
With the founding of the Cape Colony in 1652, European colonists were forbidden from enslaving the indigenous Khoe, San and African farmers. They had to look elsewhere for a labour force. And so slaves, captured and sold as property, were unwilling migrants to the Cape, transported – at great expense – from European colonies like Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, the East Indies (now Indonesia), India and Sri Lanka.
Far cheaper was the illegal trade in indigenous slaves that grew in the borderlands of the colony. Khoe-San people were forced into servitude as colonists took both land and livestock. Together with immigrant slaves, they were the labour force for the colonial project.
Louis van Mauritius (a) led a rebellion of 300 enslaved people in 1808 and ‘Portrait of Júli, a Faithful [Khoe-San]’ (b) by William Burchell, 1822.
Desertion was their most common form of rebellion. Runaway slaves escaped into the borderlands and mounted stiff resistance to the colonial advance from the 1700s until the mid-1800s. In most cases, the fugitives joined forces with groups of skelmbasters (mixed outlaws), who themselves were descended from San-, Khoe- and isiNtu-speaking Africans (hunter-gatherers, herders and farmers).
Thus, we find recorded examples of mixed bandit groups hiding out in mountain rock shelters, within striking distance of colonial farms. Using guerrilla-style warfare they raided livestock and guns. In their refuge, they made rock art, images within their own belief systems that relate to escape and retaliation.
These sites can be reliably dated because they include rock art images of horses and guns. In our most recent study of rock art in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, we see that this art also provides us with the raiders’ perspective. Our fieldwork enables us to view something of the slave and indigenous resistance from outside the texts of the colonial record.
The paintings
These mountainous regions house many rock shelters with paintings of the traditional corpus of ‘San rock art’ (antelope and dances) that have become world-famous. But owing to almost 2,000 years of contact with incoming African herders and farmers, the hunter-gatherer art changed in appearance, if not in the essence of its meaning. The ‘disconnect’ was most stark, however, during colonisation. The artists’ societies were deeply affected, disrupted and decimated. Where any art continued it was that of the mixed outlaws, often referred to simply as ‘Bushmen’ but who was actually a composite of many cultural backgrounds.
In the colonial borderlands, paintings with (a) horses and guns and (b) ostriches and baboons.
The paintings themselves are also mixed – some brush-painted, some finger-painted – but are united by subject matter pertaining to spiritual beliefs concerning escape and protective power. Certain motifs, including baboons and ostriches, continued to be used, but now appearing alongside motifs such as horses and guns. This suggests some continuity in the recognition of these animals, mystical or otherwise, as subject matter pertinent to people’s changed circumstances.
Despite these changes, bandit groups, however mixed they were, held onto, and even highlighted, some specific traditional beliefs.
Ritual specialists
The location of one band of mixed outlaws, in the Mankazana River Valley in today’s Eastern Cape, comes from the record of the 1820 settler, poet and abolitionist Thomas Pringle. During our fieldwork in this area we found rock paintings of horses, riders with guns and cattle raids that can be reliably dated to approximately when Pringle was writing.
That diverse groups of bandits painted depictions of cattle raids suggests that raiding was a fundamental concern for these groups. If we have learnt anything from the last five decades of southern African rock art research, it is that images are not the mere depictions of what the artists saw around them. Rather, they are of what ritual specialists see while travelling through the spirit world.
In the case of bandit groups, the ritual specialist often performed the role of war-doctor, who supplied traditional medicines to ensure protection in dangerous situations, including cattle raids and the flight from servitude.
Finger-painted and fine-line horses attest to the mixed nature of bandit groups, note the baboons beneath the black horse.
It is telling that these images also include motifs relating to protection during raids as can be seen in the appearance of certain animals, especially baboons and ostriches.
Baboons are associated with protection across Khoe-San and African farmer society. The |Xam San people of the 1800s claimed that the baboon chewed a stick of so-/oa, a root medicine which would alert the user (animal or human) to approaching danger and keep it safe. Among the Xhosa there is a cognate belief in uMabophe – arguably the same root medicine. Like so-/oa, uMabophe was supplied by ritual specialists to those who wished to exert supernatural influence over projectile weapons, including turning ‘bullets to water’.
Protective animals
Many of these images are painted with a fine-line, unshaded technique. But there are also images that are finger-painted in black or bright orange pigment, which have a distinctly Khoe-speaker inflection. In technique they strongly resemble the art of the Korana raiders, to the north of the colony, who were known to take in runaway slaves.
Further into the hinterland, as if to mark the fighting retreat of bandit groups as the colonial frontier expanded, we discovered rock shelters in the Stormberg and Zuurberg that exhibit yet more features of an indigenous resistance idiom. In one are images of people with horses and guns, as well as baboons and ostriches.
The ostrich was recognised by Khoe-San groups as particularly adept at escaping danger. It could outrun most predators and leap over hunters’ nets. Khoe-San would, and still do, tie the tendons from ostrich legs to their own legs to combat fatigue. Ostrich eggshell was recognised as a medicine that could be ground and consumed as a fortifying tonic. In the art of bandits, images of ritual specialists transforming into ostriches or baboons attest to them drawing on the powers of protective animals to ensure their own escape from former captors or following stock raids.
The bandit’s view
Although never officially recognised as slaves, the Khoe-San were uprooted from their land and lifeways by European settlers and forced into bondage. This brought them into contact with immigrant slaves, alongside whom they often escaped. In defiance they raided their former captors and other settlers and in rocky hideouts they painted their concerns.
The rock art of bandit groups is bound up with beliefs in the ability to call upon the protection of the supernatural. Baboons and ostriches, painted with images of livestock and people on horseback with firearms, were heralded for their associated powers pertaining to escape and protection while raiding. For these runaway slaves, rock art was one of several crucial ritual observances performed to prevent the likelihood of ever returning to a life of oppression.
Egypt’s secrets revealed: Possibly a second Sphinx & mysterious hidden chambers??
According to Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa’s 2007 study, there was a “second sphinx” on the Pyramids Plateau. El Shammaa said the famous half-lion, the half-man statue was an Egyptian deity constructed close to another Sphinx that has since been vanished without a trace.
The discovery of a lost city in Egypt was reported in many newspapers in 1935, including this report in the Sunday Express on July 7, 1935.
Today, our attention is focused on the most recent attempt to discover the true ancient story of an advanced civilization that left us with great wonders above and below the Giza plateau sands.
Ancient lost city unearthed in Egypt
The earliest reports of a “Secret City” appeared in the World Press in the first week of March 1935. Many more were discovered in July of that year, and the Sunday Express carried an article by Edward Armytage, who had just returned from Egypt to England, where he had witnessed the excavation of an ancient Egyptian metropolis thought to date back 4,000 years.
Following then, there was stillness, as if every Egyptologist alive had lost interest in this fantastic underground metropolis. Throughout the years that followed, all of his articles focused on tombs of queens and arrows. Surprisingly, at one point, such a massive find of an entire underground metropolis dating back at least 4,000 years was completely ignored.
Denial of previous findings
Zawi Hawass examining a chamber at the back of the Sphinx.
However, he retains his power – and it is not a little one. Much has been written about the Egyptian ‘Indiana Jones’ (Zahi Hawass), who smiles large one moment and goes crimson with rage the next when he is questioned. This aspect of his personality is widely chronicled in the book “Breaking the Mirror of Heaven” by Robert Bauval and Ahmed Osman.
However, such attitude does not explain why Zahi Hawass has publicly said that there is nothing beneath the Sphinx, no tunnel, or a single chamber, despite several photographs of him entering the lowering pits of the Sphinx’s head and another in the rear of the body the lion. Should we ignore what we’ve seen several times before and accept such denials without question?
Statements contradict photographic evidence
Zawi Hawass descending through a well towards a chamber filled with water that contained a large sarcophagus.
He appears to have ignored queries concerning underground tunnels underneath the Giza plateau and chambers beneath the Sphinx, claiming that it was impossible to investigate deeper since the rooms were either sealed or filled with water. This might be true, however, we can see in one of the images of a posterior axis descending on the Sphinx’s side that the ground is extremely dry.
We know that Hawass climbed the steps from the Sphinx’s rear entrance, into a deep room, and then farther down to a lower chamber containing a very big sarcophagus and filled with water; these events are all seen in a documentary made by Fox. It’s difficult to conceive how he could subsequently refute what he’d said and done.
A hole in the Sphinx’s head
Vivant Denon’s 1798 sketch of the sphinx depicts a man being pulled out of a hole in the Sphinx’s head.
Vivant Denon made a sketch of the Sphinx in 1798, although he didn’t replicate it perfectly. He must have known there was a hole in the top of his head since he had sketched the image of a guy being dragged out.
1920s aerial photo shows a hole in the Sphinx’s head.
A drawing is hardly evidence, but an aerial shot of the sphinx taken from a hot air balloon in the 1920s revealed that there is such an opening at the top of its head.
The Sphinx’s head puzzle
According to Tony Bushby in his ” The Secret in The Bible”, a fragmented Sumerian cylinder tells a story that could easily be interpreted as having taken place in Giza, involving a beast that had a lion’s head with a tunnel entrance hidden by the sand.
A new study now points out that the Sphinx’s body was carved from natural stone when there was frequent heavy rain and this takes us back to the same time that Robert Bauval and Robert Schoch calculated the construction of the Pyramids of the ‘Belt of Orion’, ie, about 10,450 BC.
The second Sphinx
Giza plateau with the second sphinx mound buried.
The Giza complex (the ancient Egyptian term Gisa meaning “Stone Hewn”) has been sketched since 1665, and some depict two heads ‘peering’ out of the sand, one with female characters, possibly the second Sphinx.
It was an ancient Egyptian custom to enlist two lions, known as Akerw, outside their doorways for heavenly protection, which would take us the right to a mystery mound near the sphinx, which Gerry Cannon (Book: The Giza Plateau Secrets and a Second Sphinx Revealed) identified and measured. Is it possible that this mound contains the buried body of a second sphinx?
One would have thought that this mysterious, large, covered shape so close to the sphinx would have been greeted with great enthusiasm by the Egyptian authorities, but Hawass and Mark Lehner didn’t want to hear or pay attention to it, according to one source.
Gerry had contacted someone at a renowned institute in Cairo who had equipment that could detect objects under the sand. This person asked the Supreme Council of Antiquities for permission to investigate the mound, but they did not respond. Apparently, no one else was allowed to investigate the specific area of the mound where we believe a Second Sphinx could be unearthed. No doubt they had a reason for this!
Why the denial?
Why would those two Egyptologists be so concerned about the possibility of discovering something that had been lost for centuries? Is it conceivable they don’t want to expose what’s behind that mound? It is illogical to oppose any type of probe or even a simple aerial image being taken, which may lead to the discovery of yet another great wonder of the world, attracting many thousands of more tourists to Egypt.
They don’t even admit to have inspected the mystery mound, and if they had, they would have been the first to admit it. Zahi Hawass appears to have an agenda, which is to maintain the conventional view of ancient Egyptian history (to not allow anything to disrupt the path of conventional history), regardless of how many new findings contradict what is now considered to be true.
Gerry Cannon has previously hinted at a timetable for constructing the three great pyramids, as well as the Sphinx, which is many thousands of years older than most of us assume. He also identified an undiscovered mound on the Giza plateau, where another sphinx is most likely hidden, based on ancient documents and data he presented.
The mysterious Egyptian tablet that is similar to an aircraft control panel
Some Egyptologists and theorists believe that this is a replica of a much earlier but far more advanced object used by Gods and Demi-Gods of Egypt.
The Mysterious Egyptian Tablet That Is somewhat resemble an aircraft control panel.
After just a few seconds of staring at this mysterious object, we get the unmistakable feeling that it was an OOPArt artefact, which is when something literally does not belong to the time it is dated.
The enigmatic table from Ancient Egypt is about 49 cm in diameter and 13 cm in height, weighing as much as 75 kg and was meticulously moulded in alabaster, a material that only exists in this region and was frequently used for decorating of various sites, including sarcophagi.
But this incredible artefact is absolutely unlike anything that was produced in this ancient time (nothing similar has been found to this day), as it features circular openings and basically undecipherable reliefs that specialists and scholars cannot interpret even after years of study.
These characteristics that we can observe, make the object resemble a control table of a modern aeroplane.
Some Egyptologists and theorists assume that this is a copy of a much older object, made of different, less weather-resistant, but considerably more advanced materials used by Gods and Demigods – perhaps a reproduction of the extraterrestrial technology observed in the past by the ancients.
This artefact was acquired by the Dutch museum in 1828, which is very interesting information about it. However, it is unknown which temple, tomb, or even where it was discovered.
As with many ancient Egyptian items, its provenance (from where it was recovered) is frequently forgotten, but its authenticity can still be confirmed. At the moment, the artefact is in the Leiden Museum of Antiquities.
Its authenticity was validated by specialists in the area after many investigations and assessments.
The strange contraption was discovered over 4,500 years ago and instantly connected with Egypt’s fifth dynasty of pharaohs.
The artifact comes from ancient Egypt, the purpose of which has not yet been determined. On this artifact, an image was applied that somewhat resembled a map or some kind of schematic board.
Only a small portion of its possible history can be deduced from the hieroglyphics found on its surface.
This tablet, according to one interpretation (there are others, all quite different), was used for the libation of deceased members of the highest Egyptian hierarchy in order for them to successfully enter the underworld.
Regardless of what the object is, its resemblance to modern equipment continues to perplex even the most sceptics and experts who have been unable to come up with a solid explanation for the find.
King Khufu’s Boat, an ancient vessel that is the oldest and largest wooden boat discovered in Egypt, has been painstakingly moved from its longstanding home next to the Giza pyramids to a nearby giant museum, officials said on Saturday.
The Solar Boat of Khufu.
The 4,600-year-old vessel, also known as the Solar Boat, was moved to the nearby Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), due to be inaugurated later this year.
“The aim of the transportation project is to protect and preserve the biggest and oldest organic artefact made of wood in the history of humanity for the future generations,” the tourism and antiquities ministry said in a statement.
It took 48 hours to transport the cedarwood boat, which is 42 metres (138 feet) long and weighs 20 tons, to its new home. It arrived at the GEM in the early hours of Saturday, the ministry said.
The boat was transported as a single piece inside a metal cage carried on a remote-controlled vehicle imported especially for the operation, said Atef Moftah, supervisor general of the GEM project.
It was unearthed in the Great Pyramid in Giza, Greater Cairo, which was itself constructed by King Khufu. This picture shows the Pyramid of Khafre, also in Giza
The vessel, discovered in 1954 at the southern corner of the Great Pyramid, has been exhibited for decades at a museum bearing its name at Giza Plateau.
The Great Boat of King Khufu is more than 4,500 years old and was discovered virtually intact in 1954
Egypt says the Grand Egyptian Museum, which has been under construction intermittently for 17 years, will contain more than 100,000 artefacts when it opens.
Robotic Arms, Solar Winds
The solar boat is not only the oldest but also the largest wooden boat ever discovered in ancient Egypt.
Measuring 42 meters (138 feet) in length, this 20-ton vessel was carved from cedarwood. One of the major concerns for Egyptian authorities, somewhat ironically, was figuring out how to move the ancient vessel.
King Khufu, entombed in the iconic Great Pyramid of Giza
The Egyptian ministry explained in their press release that the primary goal of the transportation project was to “protect and preserve the biggest and oldest organic artefact made of wood in the history of humanity for the future generations.”
It was eventually moved to its new home in Cairo within a secure metal cage, “on a remote-controlled vehicle,” that was custom built for the job in Belgium.
According to the BBC, the Egyptian ministry said the relocation operation began late Friday night and that it took “10 hours” to install the iconic ancient artwork in its new home.
Nothing New Under The Sun?
The Kings of Ancient Egypt were buried within royal burial chambers, and solar boats such as this one were entombed with their ruler and were thought of as functioning, magically-powered devices that were essential for safely transporting that ruler’s soul in the afterlife.
While Egyptian rituals were complex and multi-faceted, changing from one Kingdom to the next, the solar boat represented the fundamental concept that the King “was” the Sun’s actual divine consort on Earth. The cycle of the Sun, therefore, was a highly visible manifestation of the power of the ruler, without which it was feared new plant, animal and human life couldn’t exist.
Carving at the Abydos temple of Pharaoh Seti I, depicting Ra-Horakhty and his sacred solar boat
While this example of a solar boat was commissioned by a Fourth Dynasty monarch who ruled during the Egyptian “Old Kingdom”, the concept of a “Sun vessel” is not unique to that culture. The idea of a “solar barge” or “Sun boat,” carrying the Sun across the sky appears in many polytheistic religions.
And what is perhaps “coolest” about ancient solar boats is that, in a quirk of history which Elon Musk would love, they reflect the modern concept of electrically powered transportation, being powered by clean solar energy.
A New Egyptian Vision
The Grand Egyptian Museum, where the boat is now permanently located alongside many of the ancient king’s artefacts, will be inaugurated later this year after over 17 years in construction.
Planned to contain more than 100,000 artefacts when completed, the GEM, which is located just outside of Cairo on the Giza Plateau, is being hailed as “the new crown jewel of Egypt.”
The Grand Egyptian Museum is due to open by the end of 2021
While the GEM might be a jewel in Egypt’s crown, it also represents the largest and most modern museum experience in the world. Thus, this splendid new structure will hold deep appeal and attract history lovers from all over the planet. When it opens it will, without doubt, become the next “ancient must-see,” and you can learn more about the journey of the GEM, from conception to near completion, here.
2,400-year-old fruit baskets from Thonis-Heracleion found off the coast of Egypt
Wicker baskets filled with fruit that have survived from the 4th century BC and hundreds of ancient ceramic artefacts and bronze treasures have been discovered in the submerged ruins of the near-legendary city of Thonis-Heracleion off the coast of Egypt.
A fragment of a basket was brought to the surface by the team.
They have lain untouched since the city disappeared beneath the waves in the second century BC, then sank further in the eighth century AD, following cataclysmic natural disasters, including an earthquake and tidal waves.
Thonis-Heracleion – the city’s Egyptian and Greek names – was for centuries Egypt’s largest port on the Mediterranean before Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 331BC.
But the vast site in Aboukir Bay near Alexandria has been forgotten until its re-discovery by the French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio two decades ago, in one of the greatest archaeological finds of recent times.
Colossal statues were among treasures from an opulent civilisation frozen in time. Some of the discoveries were shown in a major exhibition at the British Museum in 2016.
Goddio has been taken aback by the latest discoveries. He told the Guardian that the fruit baskets were “incredible”, having been untouched for more than 2,000 years.
They were still filled with doum, the fruit of an African palm tree that was sacred for the ancient Egyptians, as well as grape-seeds.
“Nothing was disturbed,” he said. “It was very striking to see baskets of fruits.”
One explanation for their survival may be that they were placed within an underground room, Goddio said, noting a possible funerary connotation.
It is within an area where Goddio and his team of archaeologists have discovered a sizeable tumulus (a mound raised over graves) – about 60 metres long by 8 metres wide – and sumptuous Greek funerary offerings.
They date from the early fourth century BC when Greek merchants and mercenaries lived in Thonis-Heracleion. The city controlled the entrance to Egypt at the mouth of the Canopic branch of the Nile. The Greeks were allowed to settle there during the late Pharaonic period, constructing their own sanctuaries.
Goddio said of the tumulus: “It is a kind of island surrounded by channels. In those channels, we found an unbelievable amount of deposits made of bronze, including a lot of statuettes of Osiris.
“On that island, something totally different. We found hundreds of deposits made of ceramic. One above the other. These are imported ceramic, red on black figures from Attic.”
The finds are all the more intriguing because there were vast quantities of miniature ceramics – high-quality Ancient Greek examples, including amphorae– under the tumulus. Bronze artefacts were around the tumulus, including mirrors and statuettes.
Goddio also found extensive evidence of burning, suggesting a “spectacular” ceremony that led to people being barred from entering this site again. It appears to have been sealed for hundreds of years as none of the artefacts found was from later than the early fourth century, even though the city lived on for several hundred years.
“There’s something very strange here,” he said. “That site has been used maybe one time, never touched before, never touched after, for a reason that we cannot understand for the time being. It’s a big mystery.”
He hopes to find answers within some of the treasures, which include the well-preserved remains of a wooden sofa for banquets, a large Attic vase and a gold amulet of “exquisite quality”.
About 350 metres away, the archaeologists also found a unique Ptolemaic galley, 25 metres in length. While built in the classical tradition, with mortise-and-tenon joints, it also contains features of ancient Egyptian construction, with a flat-bottomed design that would have been perfect for navigation on the Nile and in the delta.
The European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, led by Goddio, works in close cooperation with Egypt’s ministry of tourism and antiquities and with the support of the Hilti Foundation. The finds will be studied and preserved before being put on display in museums.
The potential for further discoveries is tantalising. Even after conducting repeated excavations over the past two decades, Goddio estimates that only about 3% of the area has been explored so far.
Egypt Reveals “History-Changing” Discovery of 3,000-Year Old Mummies, Temple and Book of the Dead at Saqqara
As early as January, Egypt has already announced the first major discovery of the year in the ancient treasure throve we know as the Saqqara necropolis.
We all remember October and November last year when more than 150 ancient coffins were discovered in the necropolis. This was the largest discovery of 2020 and in 2021, I believe Saqqara will once again top this archaeological list.
The focal point of this new wave of discoveries has to be the funerary temple of Queen Nearit. Although parts of the temple were already discovered years ago, this can be considered the official reveal as most of the territory has now been excavated.
This massive wooden sarcophagus was put on display during the official reveal of the finds at Saqqara.
Next, the archaeological team unearthed 52 burial shafts that contained more than 50 sarcophagi dating back to the New Kingdom of Egypt, approximately 1570 – 1069 BC.
This marks the first discovery of artefacts from 3000 BC or earlier on the territory of the Saqqara necropolis. In all previous cases, the coffins, sarcophagi, and all other precious artefacts were from around 500 BC.
Among the coffins and the temple, archaeologists found a plethora of other artefacts from the period of the New Kingdom including statues of deities, toys, ancient games, and many others.
Adorned wooden coffins on display, found in the 50+ burial shafts excavated in Saqqara.
Perhaps the most curious item, at least to me, is the 4-meter long papyrus discovered in one of the shafts. What makes it so special and rare is what is written on it. It represents Chapter 17 of the mythical ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, and unlike most cases, it also came with the owner’s name.
Reference: The Book of the Dead is a collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts and hymns. The ancient Egyptians placed copies of it in tombs because they believed that it would help the deceased find prosperity in the afterlife. Discovering parts of it in a tomb is an incredibly rare find.
According to Dr. Zahi Hawass, the legendary Egyptian archaeologist, these discoveries will rewrite the history of the New Kingdom and especially on life in the region of Saqqara.
A beautifully decorated coffin on display during the official reveal.
Of course, excavations in Saqqara will undoubtedly continue for decades and we can expect countless other major discoveries.
For instance, Dr. Hawass also revealed the discovery of a one-of-a-kind mud-brick shrine that is yet to be excavated. Initial calculations revealed that it is at least 24 meters deep and there should be a burial chamber beneath it. We will surely hear more about it soon enough.
There is no doubt now that in the future, Saqqara will become a major tourist destination in Egypt, given the endless stream of discoveries that are being made. If only we could fast-forward ahead in time instead of waiting for the next big reveal.
In the middle of Egypt’s desert, there is a Valley of Whales which is millions of years old
There is an ancient Egyptian desert, once a vast ocean, that guards the secret of one of the most remarkable transformations in the evolution of life on planet Earth. Egypt is known as the land of Pyramids, Pharaohs, and golden sands. Countless jewels have been excavated from beneath Egypt’s sands, revealing a treasure trove of a time long gone. Archaeologists have discovered pyramids, temples, entire cities, and finds whose value is incalculable.
But there’s more to Egypt than the Sphinx, the Pharaohs, and its incredible pyramids, and there is more to this wonderful land than the Valley of Kings. Some 160 kilometres southwest of the Pyramids at the Giza plateau is a treasure trove of history. There aren’t any pyramids, temples, or mummies buried there, but it is a site of great importance. In fact, Wadi El Hitan was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005.
The reason? Hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest forms of whales, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales), lie buried beneath the desert sand.
The story of Wadi Al Hitan is worthy of the most impressive tales. Some 40 million years ago (give or take a few), massive beasts swam in the vast prehistoric Tethys ocean. It was home to numerous creatures that have long since been forgotten. One of these massive animals, over 50 feet long, had massive jaws and jagged teeth. It looked unlike anything living inside Earth’s oceans today. The creatures eventually died, sinking to the prehistoric ocean seafloor. Tens of thousands of years went by, and a fine protective mantle of sediment eventually built up over the beasts’ bones.
The prehistoric sea receded. The former seabed transformed into a vast desert as powerful winds armed with fine grains of sand began covering the surface little by little, eventually preserving the whales that would remain hidden for time to come. Eventually, it became another one of the many secrets hidden beneath the golden sands of Egypt. Time passed by, and the planet’s geology and geography warped. The planet’s crust smashed India into Asia, giving birth to the breathtaking Himalayas.
Humankind came into existence, and Africa saw the first humans stand straight, evolve, and eventually build a civilization that would forever become imprinted in history. The mighty Kings of Egypt build incredible mastabas, which evolved into massive pyramids. Egypt flourished and fell, and the land of Pharaohs was no more.
Then, more than one hundred years ago, massive fossils of long-gone beasts were revealed by the wind, which delicately preserved and revealed the fossils since time immemorial.
Sunset at Wadi El Hitan.
The site is so important that scientists argue the site reveals evidence for the history of one of the greatest mysteries in the evolution of whales: the species’ appearance as an ocean-going mammal from a previous life as a land-based animal. Today, the site is a desert covered with geological features that make it even more unique. But in the distant past, Wadi El Hitan was a massive ocean where whales swam, hunted, and reproduced.
As the site is dubbed, the Valley of the Whales is the most important site in the world to demonstrate the above-mentioned evolutionary process. The way of life of these mammals is accurately portrayed during their evolution. The number, concentration, and quality of fossils are unique to Wadi El Hitan, a time capsule providing evidence of millions of years of coastal marine life and evolution. These remains show these animals losing their hind limbs, hydrodynamic bodies (like those of modern whales) while presenting primitive bone structure aspects. Other fossil materials found at the site allow reconstructing the environment and the ecological conditions of the time.
Among the many fossils, researchers have discovered the remains of whales like the Basilosaurus.
Wadi el Hitan portrays the form and way of life during the transition from land animals to ocean-going mammals.
The Fossilized remains of Whales at Wadi El Hiran
Although the fossils discovered at the site may not be the oldest, their great density in the area and the quality of their preservation is to the degree that even some stomach contents have remained intact.
Thanks to the discovery of fossils of other early animals like sharks, crocodiles, sawfish, turtles, and rays, scientists have been able to reconstruct the environmental and ecological conditions of the site accurately.
Some of the geological formations at the Valley of Whales.
The site and the first fossil skeletons of whales were discovered at the Valley of Whales in 1903. But for more than 80 years, the site was forgotten, mostly due to the difficulty of accessing the site.
However, in the late 1980s, as all-wheel-drive- vehicles become widely available, people started visiting and documenting the site. Eventually, the Valley of Whales would attract scholars, fossil collectors, and even tourists. People would go there and collect fossils without properly documenting or conserving the fossils. This led to the disappearance of many fossils from the site, prompting warnings for the site to be adequately conserved.
One of the most important discoveries at the site was the largest fossil discovered there, with 21 meters in length. The fossil showed clear traces of five-fingered flippers on its forelimbs and an unexpected existence of hind legs, feet, and toes, features that were precisely unknown in an archaeoceti. The site exceeds the values of different similar sites in terms of the number, concentration, quality of its fossils, and their accessibility, found in an attractive and protected landscape.
The site includes an impressive assemblage of fossilized skeletons of Archaeoceti (primitive whales documenting cetacean transition to marine life), sirenians. It also includes well-preserved fossils of reptiles and shark teeth that date back to around 40 million years ago. Scientists have identified the fossils of crocodiles, sea turtles, and the fossilized remains of sea snakes at the site. Many species of bony fish, sharks, and rays are represented at the site, but the largest number of fossils are isolated small teeth, which are often inconspicuous. There are also larger fish fossils, including the rostra and pegs of sawfish. In fact, the site features a sawfish rostrum of 1.8 meters long.
Wadi El Hitan is also home to a wide variety of fossilized shells and disc-shaped nummulite fossils. According to scientists, the strata in Wadi Al Hitan belong to Middle Eocene, and it includes a vast mass of vertebrate fossils within 200 km2 of the desert. While researchers have identified many whale fossils, they have also catalogued and reported sea cows’ fossils, among over one hundred different fossils. Scientists were able to reconstruct their origin and conclude their form was serpentine, and the animals were carnivorous.
The site has been found to feature typical streamlined bodies from modern whales and shows us clear evidence of some of the primitive aspects of skull and tooth structure. In other words, the valley of Whales in Egypt is a unique site not only because of its diverse fossil library but because of the examples of fossils and their respective age.
The hills of Wadi El Hitan.
The site has managed to remain well-protected because not many people access it. In fact, it is believed that between 1500 and 2000, tourists venture out and visit the site, which is accessible through unpaved and unmarked desert roads. The tourists who decide and come to the site are mostly foreigners who then camp in the valley. Wadi El Hitan lies within the Wadi El Rayan Protected area, but part of the site has been turned into a tourist venue, and there are walkways placed in between the main fossils. Small shelters were also built at the site.
In addition to its vast collection of fossilized remains, Wadi El Hitan is home to more than 15 different species of desert places and 15 different types of mammals, including the red fox and the Egyptian mongoose. The site is mostly frequented by the Gennec Foxes, who tend to visit the campsite at night searching for food.
