An entire cemetery was discovered by chance by a donkey!
On the morning of September 28, 1900 AD, while a man was escorting his donkey in the Kom al-Shaqafa neighborhood in Alexandria, the donkey suddenly fell into a well 12 meters away, to reveal an entire cemetery built and arranged in an eclectic style of Egyptian, Greek and Roman art, which is the cemetery known as the cemetery Catacombs and dated to the first and second centuries AD.
Label:
First name (Kom Al-Shuqafa)
This name is called the cemetery because this area and its surroundings were a cemetery in which many people were buried. After the burial, the deceased people used to eat in this area, and then they break the pottery pieces used for eating and throw them, so they turn into shards or small crumbs on top of each other until they resemble Al-Kom was called Kom Al-Shuqafa.
Second name: Catacombe
• It came from a distortion of the first name, so the word Kom Al-Shaqafa was known in the Latin language as lovos ceramics, meaning pottery hills, and then it was distorted into the catacomb.
• Or that the word catacomb means dug in rock or buried underground
Cemetery configuration:
1- The entrance to the cemetery is above the ground
2- A spiral staircase carved into the rock, about 10 meters deep, leads to the cemetery dug at the bottom, and a well wraps the ladder around it.
3- The first floor after the stairs: which contains an entrance and around room called the Rotunda, and to its left there is a room called the Triclinium, and to its right, there is a room known as the Caracalla Room
4- Another ladder leading to the main burial chamber consists of 15 steps
5- The main burial chamber: which is considered the most important part of the cemetery, whose entrance is formed by an Egyptian-style door above the Egyptian Corniche, in the middle of which is the winged sun disk, and on the sides there are two snakes, each wearing the double crown, symbolizing what is known as the Agathadaymon, the god of goodness and protection in the other world At the Romans, then on the back wall of the tomb we find two prominent sculptures representing the god Anubis, but in a Roman form
Inside the burial chamber
The burial chamber is square and contains mixed scenes between Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art and belief. One of the few tombs that witnessed this great mixing between the three civilizations indicates the severity of the influence on Egyptian art, even in the time of the Roman Empire.
5- Finally, a final floor in the cemetery is accessed by a ladder, but it is completely submerged in water.