The find still requires research and confirmation, but scientists are already calling it the largest discovery in recent decades.
An international team of archaeologists excavating the Egyptian desert in Abu Gorab in 2021, south of Cairo, have uncovered ancient ruins that they believe are one of six known lost temples of the Sun.
According to scholars, these temples were built about 4,500 years ago during the lifetime of the Pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty as their final resting places to ensure that the pharaohs are resurrected as gods in the afterlife.
Experts are aware of six such buildings, but only two of them have been found. However, it is likely that the new find may turn out to be the third temple.
Initially, experts excavating north of the Egyptian archaeological site of Abusir discovered the remains of a likely Temple of the Sun, built for Pharaoh Nyuserra, who ruled for about 30 years in the 25th century BC. But further excavations revealed an older foundation made of mud bricks, indicating that a building had already existed at this site.
Experts then found the base of a white limestone column about half a meter deep and many beer jugs for ritual offerings, which, combined with the newly discovered architecture, is important evidence for the theory of the Temple of the Sun.
For whom and when exactly this old original temple was built remains a mystery. Although scientists believe that, most likely, it was a ruler of the same period.
Recall that the pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty ruled for about 150 years from the beginning of the 25th century BC to the middle of the 24th century BC. Only a small number of these rulers had their own temples of the Sun, created in the name of the sun god Ra on the western bank of the Nile, writes The Sun.
Scientists have yet to complete the excavations and carry out the necessary research, but they already call the new find the largest archaeological discovery of Egypt in recent decades.
