Found this and thought i would share it with the board.
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/pa ... floc=wn-ns
Look What They Found Buried In the Sand
A lost ancient Egyptian town that was home to the
workmen who built the pyramids has been found
buried in the sand by a group of Scottish
archaeologists working with the Saqqara Geophysical
Survey Project.
Located about 15 miles from Cairo, the town is situated
near the necropolis of Saqqara and measures
approximately one mile by three-quarters of a mile.
There are large temples, some of which are nearly 200
square feet in size, and a number of tombs. The houses
are both large and small, indicating the wealthy lived
alongside artisans. The Scotsman newspaper
described the remarkable discovery as "a 'real' town that
will offer a unique insight into Egyptian life unaffected by the glamour of the royal
and aristocratic classes." The town most likely evolved from the Old Kingdom,
beginning in about 2,500 B.C., through the reign of Cleopatra and beyond the birth
of Christ to about 54 A.D.
"I do not believe we will recover any chariots of gold or fabulous pharaoh masks,
but in archaeological terms it is stunning; a hitherto undiscovered town, complete,
buried beneath the sand," Ian Mathieson, a scientific archaeologist from
Edinburgh and the director of the Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project, told The
Scotsman. Experts are confident that artifacts of "immeasurable importance" will
be found.
There's just one problem: The town is still buried 20 feet deep in the sand. The
team, which is comprised of volunteers who spend their annual vacation time
digging in the sands of Egypt, doesn't have the money to excavate the lost city. It's
been operating since 1990 on a shoestring budget of about $16,000 a year.
Compare this to teams from other countries that spend $1.6 million annually on
archeological exploration.
Mathieson knows the town is down there thanks to geo-thermal equipment, but he
says it's a miracle they even found it. They began looking for it when they saw a
one-line reference to it in the papers of Auguste Mariette and Jacques de Morgan,
two archaeologists who worked in the area more than 110 years ago. "That was all
there was to go on, and we found it. However, it needs resources greater than ours
to excavate it," Mathieson told The Scotsman. "But if there's anybody out there with
spare cash, we'd be happy to hear from them."
Even without excavating the lost Egyptian city, the Scottish team has solved an
enduring mystery that has long puzzled historians. To try to find the town, they
hunted for an ancient road that would have been capable of bearing the extremely
heavy loads of building materials needed for the pyramids and tombs. They didn't
find a road. They found a lake. "The materials were carried by boat, and on the
edge of the lake, there was the town," Mathieson explained. One more mystery
solved about how the pyramids were built.
--Cathryn Conroy
