This undated image shows the archaeological site of a Greco-Roman massive funeral building in Fayoum, Egypt. Egypt announced on Dec. 1 the discovery of the remains of a Greco-Roman massive funeral building in Fayoum Province, south of the capital Cairo. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Handout via Xinhua)
CAIRO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Egypt announced on Thursday the discovery of the remains of a Greco-Roman massive funeral building in Fayoum Province, south of the capital Cairo.
The discovery was made in an Egyptian archaeological mission at the site of Garza Cemetery in Fayoum that started in 2016, said the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in a statement.
"Several portraits, a statute of Isis-Aphrodite, a combination of the Egyptian Goddess Isis and the Greek Aphrodite, a wooden coffin, human-shaped coffins and papyrus-made records that refer to the social, economic, and religious conditions of the inhabitants of that period, were found inside the building," the ministry statement said.
The building's floor is made of colorful and decorated limestone tiles leading to a narrow street, with remains of four columns found inside the funeral house, it added.
Garza village, known as Philadelphia in the Greek era, was established in the third century BC as a central area for a desert reclamation project by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, also known posthumously as Ptolemy the Great, for securing food resources, according to the statement. ■
This undated image shows a view of the remains of a Greco-Roman funeral building in Fayoum, Egypt. Egypt announced on Dec. 1 the discovery of the remains of a Greco-Roman massive funeral building in Fayoum Province, south of the capital Cairo. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Handout via Xinhua)
This undated image shows a view of the remains of a Greco-Roman funeral building in Fayoum, Egypt. Egypt announced on Dec. 1 the discovery of the remains of a Greco-Roman massive funeral building in Fayoum Province, south of the capital Cairo. (Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Handout via Xinhua)
