ASWAN, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that two niches containing carved figures have been found in two New Kingdom chapels at Gebel Al-Silsila by a team from Sweden’s Lund University. It had been thought that the 32 chapels at the site, located in an area known for its quarries on both sides of the Nile River, were destroyed by an earthquake in antiquity. The first niche, in Chapel 30, contains the seated figures of the chapel’s owner, a man wearing a wig with his arms crossed in the Osirian posture, and his wife, who has her left arm on her husband’s shoulder and her right hand on her chest. The second niche, in Chapel 31, has four figures: Neferkhewe, the “Overseer of Foreign Lands” during the reign of Thuthmose III, his wife Ruwisti, and their son and daughter. To read about another recent discovery at Gebel Al-Silsila, go to “‘T’ Marks the Spot.”
