Alexandria, Egypt - Egyptian archaeologists uncovered a series of nearly 2000-year-old tombs on the Mediterranean coast, as well as the remains of a planned Byzantine-era city in the country's western desert.
The coastal discovery was made at Marina El-Alamein, about 62 miles west of Alexandria, where recent excavations uncovered 18 Greco-Roman tombs, Egypt's Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Several burial chambers were discovered with their original stone blocking slabs still in place, while a granite sarcophagus measuring about 8 feet was found with its lid intact, suggesting the graves had remained sealed for nearly two millennia.
Inside the tombs, archaeologists found human remains alongside pottery, amphorae, and other funerary objects.
Among the most notable finds were 24 gold objects placed inside the mouths of several individuals, a funerary practice associated with beliefs about the afterlife.
The site is believed to correspond to the ancient city of Leukaspis, a Mediterranean port that flourished between the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods.
The latest discovery brings the total number of known tombs at Marina El-Alamein to 44 since the site was first identified in 1986 during construction work.
Separately, in the Dakhla Oasis in Egypt's western desert, archaeologists uncovered the remains of a Byzantine-era settlement at Ain al-Sabil, dated to around the 4th century AD, the ministry announced on Friday.
The city, built of mud brick, features a planned street grid, public squares, residential buildings, a basilica-style church and defensive structures, indicating an organized urban community in the desert interior.
The site also yielded around 200 ostraca written in Coptic and Greek, along with bronze and gold coins, including examples linked to the reign of Roman emperor Constantius II (337–361 AD).