Ancient Harbor Discovered In Egypt Is Oldest Found So Far

There are a never-ending number of ancient and not-so-ancient artifacts constantly being discovered, some cooler than others. A port and some papyri may not be the most exciting of discoveries, but when you change that to the phrase “oldest harbor ever found in Egypt” things get a little more interesting.

The Egyptian State Information Service broke the news on Friday, but it took a little while for the discovery of the harbor and the papyrus to swing over to this side of the world. The artifacts were found during a collaborative French and Egyptian exposition, overseen by the French Institute for Archaeological Studies. The group headed to the Red Sea Shore to excavate, eventually uncovering the most ancient harbor ever discovered in Egypt (other ports found in Egypt are at least 1,000 years newer). The harbor was marked by vessel anchors in the stone, as well as docks.

Additionally, over 40 sheets of paper were uncovered, helping to explain daily life and date the harbor and papyri to King Khufu’s reign roughly 4,500 years ago. King Khofu was eventually buried in the Great Pyramid of Giza. According to NBC News one of the sheets of paper even detailed the life of an official who worked to build the Great Pyramid.

The group traveled 112 miles outside of Suez to reach the area and ended up finding a goldmine’s worth of information and a pretty sweet harbor to boot. Not bad for an archaeological foray, I’d say.

Editor's Note: The papyrus photo is not from this most recent dig.