Why is Egypt promoting its archaeological finds?

Egypt seeks to promote its ancient heritage through these discoveries in order to revive the tourism sector, which has suffered many successive blows due to political instability in the country since the overthrow of the late President Hosni Mubarak a decade ago.

When did people start excavating in Egypt?

By all accounts, the story of archaeology in Egypt begins in the mid-1880s with the excavations of William Matthew Flinders Petrie, often referred to as the ‘father of Egyptian archaeology’.

How did ancient Egyptian cities get buried?

A city doesn’t have to be abandoned for you to see the layers of a city through the years. Most ancient cities get buried under the dust and rubble of structures that have collapsed over the centuries and millennia that followed their destruction and abandonment.

What does an ancient Egyptian tomb tell us about?

A tomb is a place in which you are buried when you die. The ancient Egyptians believed that life did not stop when you died. What you did when you died was move away to another place, a place they called the afterlife. After the time of the Old Kingdom, pyramids fell out of style.

How did archeologists discover ancient Egypt?

The Rosetta Stone was discovered in 1799. The study of many aspects of ancient Egypt became more scientifically oriented with the publication of Mémoires sur l’Égypte in 1800 and the more comprehensive Description de l’Egypte between 1809 and 1829.

Why do ancient sites get buried?

Humans steal the best bits to reuse in other buildings, and erosion wears everything else to dust. So the only ancient ruins we find are the ones that were buried. But they got buried in the first place because the ground level of ancient cities tended to steadily rise.

What was the process of burial in ancient Egypt?

Generally, the processes involved: Ancient Egyptian burial practices included mummification due to the belief that a preserved body was key to ensuring a person’s survival in the afterlife. The process started as soon as an important person died. Someone would bring them to an embalmer.

Why was mummification important in ancient Egypt?

Ancient Egyptian burial practices included mummification due to the belief that a preserved body was key to ensuring a person’s survival in the afterlife. The process started as soon as an important person died. Someone would bring them to an embalmer.

How did people bury their pets in ancient Egypt?

If the judges deemed them worthy, they would place the body on a boat in the Nome Lake. The boat took the body to the other side to be buried. Some burials involved burying a deceased’s pet with them. If a pet outlived its owner, Egyptians would sometimes wait for it to die before burying outside its owner’s tomb.

What makes an excavation in Egypt different from others?

The arid climate can make an excavation in Egypt quite different to one in other places. Hyperarid desert sand creates perfect preservation conditions for organic material. However, this does not mean automatically that all organic material is well preserved.