The ancient city existed from 1391 to 1353 before the reign of Amenhotep III, the ruler of the 18th dynasty, said the leader of the expedition, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Havas.
“Many foreign missions searched for the city but were unable to find it,” said the former minister of antiquities.
“The Egyptian expedition was surprised to find this city, the largest city ever found in Egypt,” he added.
The city is the largest administrative and industrial settlement in this Egyptian state at the time of the west coast of Luxor in southern Egypt, said Havas.
Many archeological finds, including rings, scarab figures, colored pottery and clay bricks with Amenhotep III cartridges, confirm the city’s existence.
“The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archaeological discovery since the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb,” said Bethy Brian, a professor of Egyptology at Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
Egypt has repeatedly announced significant archaeological discoveries in recent years, in an effort to revive the tourism industry, which is an important source of income.
The unstable political situation of the last decade has had a negative impact on the Egyptian tourism industry.
In 2011, in the Arab Spring protests, long-time leader Hosi Mubarak lost power in Egypt, and in 2013 an army coup overthrew the first democratically elected President, Mohammed Mursi.
The ensuing bloody retaliation against the coup’s enemies severely damaged the country’s image.
As elsewhere in the world, the Covid-19 crisis in Egypt is a major challenge for the tourism industry.
