More re San Al-Hagar

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

French archaeologists have made a major discovery at the San Al-Hagar archaeological site, 70 kilometres north of the town of Zagazig. San Al-Hagar, site of the ancient city known to the ancient Egyptians as Djanet and the Greeks as Tanis, contains the ruins of a number of temples that can be seen in what during the Third Intermediate Period was an important royal necropolis, and is now an outdoor museum.

The French archaeologists were conducting routine excavations in search of the sacred lake of the temple to the goddess Mut. During the course of their work, which commenced last year, the team early this month stumbled upon what are believed to be some of the blocks that once formed the lake's enclosure wall. Of the 120 blocks that the French team has cleaned so far, two thirds bear inscriptions. They expect that further excavations will reveal more blocks.

The minister of state for antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said that early on-site studies revealed that the blocks were engraved with coloured decorations depicting royal figures, which indicated that they dated to the reign of the 22nd (Libyan)-Dynasty Pharaoh Osorkon II.