Archaeologists Just Found an Ancient City Beneath the Desert—and Bodies with ‘Golden Tongues’ 15%
By Tim Newcomb20%
7/14/2026, 12:30:00 PM
Topics: Ancient Civilizations, Discoveries
BS Summary: This article contains 16 faulty reasoning types, including Representativeness Heuristic, Appeal to Authority, and Biased Writer Voice, with Ambiguity (Equivocation) as the most egregious example at 19.2% saturation with 109 hits. Analysis detected 844 faulty-reasoning hits from 569 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 30.9% and a BS Rank of 15% (18,752 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 85.70% of the article peer group.
From golden tongues to lost cities, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities continues to discover a range of archaeological treasures.
The ministry recently announced two separate finds within hours of each other—one a lost Byzantine-era city from the fourth century C.E., and the other a set of tombs laden with grave goods and spanning the Ptolemaic and Roman periods.
The first find offers an expansive look at what was once a key city in Egypt’s western desert under the Byzantine empire.
Uncovered in an area that’s now known as the Dakhla Oasis, the residential city featured a highly organized urban plan with main streets running north to south, occasionally intersecting with east-west streets.
Two open squares provided public spaces.
A basilica-style church overlooking the main street was arguably the most prominent find, but teams also located two watchtowers (on the outskirts of the city) and a thick-walled fortress.
Within the Byzantine-era city, archaeologists located homes with spacious reception halls and vaulted ceilings, complete with ovens, kitchens, and tools for grinding and producing food.
A particularly notable house from the early fourth century belonged to a deacon named Tessos, and was used as a church before residents constructed the basilica.
Additional discoveries within the area are being considered for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List, including well-preserved bronze coins depicting Byzantine emperors, gold coins with the Roman emperor Constantius II (who ruled between 337 and 361 C.E.), and 200 ostraca pottery fragments used as writing tablets.
These fragments are littered with Coptic and Greek writing that recorded sales, correspondence, and details of daily life.
Smaller finds included household pottery, bottles that held oils and perfumes, and stoneware.
The announcement of the lost city comes alongside the revelation of the discovery of 18 ancient tombs from the Marina el-Alamein archaeological site (roughly 60 miles west of Alexandria), including 24 thin gold pieces placed inside the mouths of the deceased.
Known as “golden tongues,” these objects were part of a funeral rite meant to symbolize the gift of speech in the next life.
One of the gold pieces depicted the Eye of Horus, an Egyptian symbol signifying prosperity and protection.
Of the tombs, 11 were cut out of rock, reaching as far as 26 feet below the surface.
Seven others used limestone to build on top of the ground.
So far, the site has yielded 48 tombs that show the coexistence of Egyptian and Greek customs.
Along with the golden tongues, the objects discovered in the tombs included an eight-foot-long granite sarcophagus filled with skeletal remains, which will now be analyzed.
One tomb contained an unfinished marble statue of the goddess Aphrodite, and another held a limestone carving of a man sitting and holding a bird.
There was also a plaster sphinx.
The site—which was originally discovered in 1986—was likely an ancient Greco-Roman port city on the Mediterranean known as Leukaspis, which thrived from the second century B.C.E. (when it was built) into the fourth century B.C.E.
The differing burial styles (deep underground, built up, and shallow) highlight the differing social classes within the ancient city.
Smaller discoveries inside the tombs included pottery, amphorae, oil lamps, plates, limestone altars, stone basins, and glass tear bottles.
One limestone altar was carved in the shape of a false door—an Egyptian custom meant to link the living and the dead.
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100%flagged-word coverageEgyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
60 attributed words56% of attributed speech61% writer coverage
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