News - Ancient Egyptian Capital City Investigated

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BENI SUEF, EGYPT—La Brújula Verde reports that a reused stone block carved with the name of the pharaoh Senwosret III has been discovered in central Egypt at Ihnasiya al-Madina, the capital of Egypt during the 9th and 10th Dynasties also known as Heracleopolis Magna. Senwosret III ruled in the 12th Dynasty, from about 1878 to 1840 B.C. The inscription includes his coronation and birth titles. A cartouche including the name Osiris Na Rief, a god who was worshipped in the region in the late Pharaonic period and the Ptolemaic era, was also found. Hisham El-Leithy of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said that traces of a Roman-era basilica; a Doric Greek temple; the head of a marble sculpture of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty; fragments of wall statues; and ceramic molds for making Roman coins were also uncovered. Components of the Doric temple were reused in the sixth century A.D. in the foundation of the basilica and in platforms for its massive pillars, El-Leithy explained. To read about Senwosret III's funerary complex, go to "A Pharaoh's Last Fleet."

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