Georgina Jedikovska of Interesting Engineering reports that Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the 3,000-year-old “Lost City of Gold,” Aten, near Luxor. The site, well-preserved with homes and a gold extraction facility, offers insights into ancient Egypt’s mining and daily life. It is now open to researchers and the public. Jedikovska writes:
Archaeologists in Egypt have fully uncovered the ‘Lost City of Gold,’ a 3,000-year-old gold mining hub resurrected from the desert after four years of meticulous excavation.
Found beneath Luxor’s Valley of the Kings at Jabal Sukari, southwest of Marsa Alam in the Red Sea Governorate, the once-thriving gold-mining city called Aten was unearthed in 2020. It has been recognized as one of the most significant archaeological finds since the discovery of Tutankhamun’stomb more than a century ago.
Experts were amazed by the exceptional preservation of the settlement’s structures, including homes, workshops, administrative buildings, temples, and bathhouses, following the excavation completion this week.
The team also uncovered remnants of a mining camp, featuring a fully equipped gold extraction facility. The site included crushing and grinding stations, filtration basins, and sedimentation pools that fed into smelting furnaces used for refining gold from quartz veins. […]
The researchers suggest that the findings shed light on Egypt’s ancient mining industry and the daily lives of its workers. “It also provides valuable insight into the social, religious, and economic lives of mining workers in industrial cities across the Eastern Desert throughout different historical periods,” the ministry says in a press release. […]
After unearthing the ‘lost city’ and its remarkable discoveries, officials announced that the site is now open to researchers and the public, with informational panels providing details about the region’s history.
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