CAIRO, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that a mudbrick wall dating to the New Kingdom period, blocks from colossal royal statues dating to the Middle Kingdom period, and Old Kingdom moulds for the manufacture of faience amulets and capital fragments of palm columns have been uncovered at the Heliopolis Temple site, which is located in the Matariya area of northern Cairo. “It came as a surprise that these layers directly overlay a stratum of the prehistoric settlement of Heliopolis,” said Aymen Ashmawi of the Egyptian Antiquities Department. Stone tools, debris from the crafting of stone tools, and pottery were also recovered. Additionally, fragments of carvings were found in two pits at the site. The carvings include slabs bearing images of Ramesses II, who ruled from about 1279 to 1213 B.C.; the base of a brown quartzite statue of Seti II, who ruled from about 1200 to 1194 B.C.; and a red granite statue that could depict either of the goddesses Isis or Hathor, or one of the queens of Ramesses II. For more on the sacred site of Heliopolis, go to “Egypt’s Eternal City.”
