2nd century Roman temple uncovered in Aswan

The Egyptian Excavation Field School at Kom Al- Rasras archaeological site in Aswan has uncovered the remains of a Roman sandstone temple dating back to the 2nd century of the Roman era.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

The temple bears the cartouches of a number of Roman emperors such as Domitian (81-96 CE), Hadrian (117-138 CE) and Antonius Pius (138-161 CE).

Head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities at the Ministry of Antiquities Dr. Aymen Ashmawi explained that the excavation work has also discovered the temple's sanctuary, which consists of three chambers leading to a cross-sectional hall connected to another hall with a sand stone worked access ramp, inside it was found the remains of stone engraving with stars representing the sky. This could be part of the temple's ceiling.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

Dr. Ashmawi added that the temple might be connected to Gebel Al-Silsila area and was most probably part of the residential area of the quarry workers because the name of the site Khenu was engraved on one of the discovered blocks.

Further excavations may lead to the discovery of the residential area of Al-Silsila quarries.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

Dr. Bassem Gehad, Assistant to the Minister of Antiquities for Human Resources and training said that this is the first Egyptian excavation field school to be created. Such schools come within the framework of the Ministry of Antiquities to establish a number of Egyptian field schools in order to develop the skills of junior archaeologists in several archaeological domains among them the excavation, documentation restoration and site management, through the implementation of a number of lectures and field work.

Credit: Ministry of Antiquities

He pointed out that the Ministry has established four similar training centers in Alexandria, Upper Egypt, Giza and South-Sinai and is scheduled to establish six more schools to cover all Egypt.

The Al-Rasras field school started its training work in January 2018 where 16 archaeologists from Sohag, Qena, Luxor and Aswan have been trained.

Source: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities [February 14, 2018]