Rock-Cut Tombs Found Beneath Roman Camp in Egypt

At Tell el-Yahudiya, in Egypt’s eastern Nile Delta, one layer of history sits directly on top of another. Archaeologists just added another chapter to a site that has already seen thousands of years of continuous use.

A Site Whose Name Means “Mound of the Jews”

Tell el-Yahudiya sits in the Qalyubia Governorate, north of Cairo, and its Arabic name translates to Mound of the Jews, reflecting the site’s long-recognized connection to Jewish history in the region. An Egyptian archaeological mission announced the latest findings, working under Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the discoveries represent an important addition to understanding the site’s history.

Rare Tombs in a Clay-Rich Landscape

The team uncovered several rock-cut tombs, a type of burial that is unusually rare across the Nile Delta. Most of the Delta consists of clay-rich soil unsuitable for cutting stable tombs directly into rock, so burials of this kind are far more commonly associated with areas like Kom el-Shuqafa in Alexandria or sites along Egypt’s northern coast. El-Leithy said artifacts recovered from inside the tombs helped the team establish a timeline: burial activity began in the late New Kingdom period and continued through the Late Period, indicating the site remained in continuous funerary use across several centuries.

Two Distinct Tomb Designs

According to Ayman Ashmawy, adviser to the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the tombs fall into two main architectural types. The first features a staircase leading down into a hall lined with burial niches, known in Arabic as bayatat. The second consists of a rectangular vertical shaft leading to two separate burial chambers. Both designs are considered unusual for the Qalyubia region and the eastern Delta more broadly, and researchers hope studying them will clarify how burial customs developed and changed in this part of Egypt over time.

A Roman Camp Built on Top

Directly above the rock-cut tombs, in the upper archaeological layers of the site, the mission also continued excavating the remains of a Roman military camp. El-Leithy said this layering shows Tell el-Yahudiya remained strategically important long after its earlier funerary phase, undergoing repeated occupation and structural changes across different historical periods. The site’s story reaches back even further, with roots in the Hyksos period, when a large camp first occupied the location. Occupation then continued through the Greek and Roman eras, with the newly excavated Roman camp representing the most recent layer added to that long sequence.

Sources

This report draws on findings announced by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, including statements from Dr. Hisham El-Leithy and Ayman Ashmawy of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, as reported by the Daily News Egypt.