The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, represented by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), has begun restorations on a cemetery and residential area in Marina el-Alamein, which lie five kilometres east of the modern town of el-Alamein (96 kilometres west of Alexandria).
SCA Secretary General Mostafa Waziry said that it is one of the most important archaeological sites dating back to the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.
“It contains many different archaeological elements from a cemetery that includes many tombs of different shapes and sizes, and a residential complex with many houses dating back to that important historical period,” he said.
“It also houses a city market, which contains a bath from the Ptolemaic era, another from the Roman era, a basilica from the Roman era, and the two cisterns,” Waziry added.
Hesham Samir, assistant to the minister for archaeological projects at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, said the tomb floors have been swept of dust and sand, and cleared of weeds and grass.
Parts of structures that have collapsed due to erosion are being re-assembled while salts, algae, fungi and wild bees’ nests have been removed from the tomb walls and ceilings, Samir said.
“Work has also begun to rebuild the collapsed parts of some of the walls, using their original bricks found inside and around the houses and tombs,” he added.
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