Egypt has suffered from a tourism drought for years due to regional turmoil and terror attacks. But now there is hope for a strong and sustained revival of the industry driven, in part, by the discovery of a 3,500-year-old tomb near Luxor’s Valley of the Kings. Several mummies, colourful wooden sarcophagi and more than 1,000 funerary statues were found at the tomb. Archaeologists were surprised to find such an extensive cache of antiquities and said there was a strong possibility that the site may yet reveal further marvels.
Egypt is a land of treasures. Over the centuries its antiquities and heritage sites have been plundered by fair means and foul. Its prized possessions now reside, legitimately, in institutions around the world and, unfortunately, they also rest in the hands of those who have acquired these artefacts by more opaque means. It is a wonder that there is anything left untouched but, as this latest discovery suggests, Egypt will be yielding treasures for decades to come.