Long Searched Causeway Of Sarenput I, Governor Of Aswan’s Elephantine Island – Discovered

A causeway leading to the tomb of Sarenput I, an ancient Egyptian official during the reign of pharaoh Senusret I of the 12th Dynasty, was unearthed in the Qubbet al-Hawa Necropolis in Aswan. Sarenput I was the governor of Aswan’s Elephantine Island.

The discovery was made by an international team of archaeologists which included members of the UK-based Egypt Exploration Society, the Archaeology Department of the University of Birmingham, and the Qubbet al-Hawa Research Project,

According to experts from the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities, the newly unearthed causeway is believed to be the longest ever found on the western bank of the Nile in Aswan- It stretches for 133 meters to connect the tomb of Sarenput I to the Nile bank and it is the longest causeway ever built on the west bank of Aswan.

The causeway is 3,900 years old and is decorated with engravings that depict a funerary scene in raised relief, which is located on the eastern face of the northern wall of the causeway.

The causeway was constructed from blue sandstone, which is a building material only available in the area of Shat elSaba Regal near Kom Ombo, about 50 km north of Aswan.

Blue sandstone was used at the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II at Deir el-Bahari and the temple for Satet on the Island of Elephantine.

Archaeologists also found a collection of clay containers that could be canopic jars used in mummification. Also inscriptions found on certain parts of the causeway suggest that decoration was already underway in the 10th year of Senusret’s reign (1910 BC).)

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