Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa in Alexandria, Egypt | Facts Kom El Shoqafa Tombs “Mound of Shards”, History Pharaonic Cemetery, Map, Entrance Fees, opening hours and more.
The history and facts of building the Catacomb Cemetery, the most important tomb of the pharaohs of the Roman era, how much is the entry ticket price, official working hours, and more.
A historical archaeological site that is actually located in the city of Alexandria, specifically in the Kom El Shoqafa area in the south of the Mina El Basal neighborhood.
● It is also considered one of the most important tombs in the city, and it is also considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World already in the medieval period.
● This cemetery also consists of a series or a large group of tombs, a group of statues, and a number of Alexandrian archaeological remains in that area, the purpose of which is the Pharaonic funeral worship.
● Because of that time period at the time, many features of the catacombs at Kom el Shoqafa were already combining Roman, even Greek and Egyptian cultural points.
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Kom Al-Shoqafa Cemetery – Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa
The tombs of Kom Al-Shoqafa date from the construction of the most important Pharaonic Monuments in Alexandria in Egypt. Information and details about the catacombs, the Caracalla Hall, the dates of visit to the cemetery, the price of a ticket and more about the most important archaeological attractions of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
These graves were discovered by chance in 1900, when the legs of a donkey fell on the cemetery long after a search and exploration by archaeologists that lasted more than 12 years without any trace of graves.
The tombs are in the district of Kermos or the district of Mina al-Basal on the western border of ancient Alexandria and near the Pompei’s Pillar, where it is considered one of the largest Roman tombs in Egypt and dates to the second century AD.
The tombs of Kom Al-Shoqafa are called Catacomb cemeteries, where they resemble the designs of Roman tombs in Italy, you will notice that the architectural design of the tombs carved into the rocks and reaches them through underground catacombs, consisting of a well around which a spiral staircase turns and then leads to 3 levels of the cemetery.
The Catacombs Cemetery consists of 3 levels or 3 floors, but all levels of the tombs are flooded so far, you will find the banquet halls of the cemetery and a set of stairs dug around the well.
You will find side openings in the Tomb of Catacomb well have been used for mummy mode easily, you will also find a passage containing two cavities and a large rock bank, People used cavities to comfort workers where it is in the form of a shell.
After the corridor you will see a round-shaped room with a well around it a small wall containing a group of columns and heads of statues in stone, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities moved all the statues to the Greco-Roman Museum.
On the left side you will find a corridor leading to a rectangular room containing 4 columns and called banquet and food room for bait work after the completion of the burial.
The Catacombs in the tombs of Kom Al-Shoqafa – Pharaonic Monuments in Alexandria
When you climb to the second turn in the cemetery, you find a ladder leading to a rectangular hall with two columns at the top of each triangular upper pass and the solar disk of the God Ra in the belief of ancient Egyptian civilization and a falcon on foreigners as a symbol of the God of Horus.
A statue of a man whose left leg stands forward behind the two columns is found in the left cavity a statue of an Egyptian woman in a long dress.
When we go to the master burial chamber, we find a balcony based on two columns with 3 coffins as well as drawings and inscriptions on the wall of Egyptian and Greek civilization.
You will find rectangles of stones on either side of the corridor in the tombs of Kom Al-Shoqafa surmounted by a round disc and symbolized by the patronage of the Medusa, the protector of the cemetery as was thought in Greek civilization, where her snake-shaped hair and those who look directly at her eye turn into stones for life.
Each rectangle contains a snake placed on a compartment symbolizing the God Dionysus, the God of the Reds and the God of the Dead or symbolizing the God Serapis and the Goddess Isis as interpreted by some archaeologists.
At the entrance you will find a large collection of statues of cobra snakes on which the solar disk on a row, and when we climb to the third floor of the cemetery which was dedicated to the beginning of the mummy inn on the first floor.
Dates of the tombs of Kom Al-Shoqafa – dates of visit of the Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa
The tour starts from 8am to 5pm
Why did we call the Kom Al-Shoqafa with this name?
The Arabs once named the tombs of Kom Al-Shoqafa, where the Greeks were eager to eat in pottery dishes that they ate in the cemetery, and they broke them immediately after each meal and threw them outside the cemetery, so that a large pile of broken pottery formed.
The Caracalla Room – Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa
The Hall of Caracalla is designed in a rectangular shape centered by an offering table, a set of stairs and a closed entrance, horse bones were found next to the table but were sometimes interpreted as those of people killed by Emperor Caracalla.
The bones were moved to the Greco-Roman Museum “Museums of Egypt” and glass molds were added in the Caracalla Hall to preserve some bones, the mummy was buried by breaking the back wall of the sarcophagus, and then rebuilding the wall again.
How to make and design the tombs of Kom el Shoqafa and its statues
● Also, some statues were already made using these Egyptian methods at the time, but at the same time they bear some of the Roman methods of clothing and hair style.
● But while those are other features they do share a similar style.
● There is a large circular staircase growing in the middle of it. It also leads to a number of tombs that were already dug into the rock during the era of the Antonine emperors (second century AD).
● And her time was mostly used at that time to move those deceased bodies.
● The great importance of this cemetery in Kom al-Shuqafa is due to the large expansion of this cemetery, the abundance of its decorations, and the occurrence of great complications in its planning.
● Not only that, but it is also considered one of the clearest examples of the overlapping of Pharaonic art with Roman art inside the city and the presence of the finest number of architectural or funerary models.
● And that area was named at that time due to the large number of these pottery remains, those shards that were actually left behind by these visitors during the visit.
● Excavations began in that area almost since 1892, but that cemetery was not found except by sheer chance and it was on September 28, 1900.
Its location and the importance of the Kom El Shoqafa cemetery
● This cemetery, like most of the cemeteries of the Roman era, is located in the city of Alexandria in the Western Cemetery area, and for whom, of course, with the exception of one cemetery located in “Tigran Pasha Street”, where it was found in the east of the city.
● To whom is this cemetery (Kom al-Shuqafa) located in the south of (Mina al-Basal neighborhood), and it is considered one of the most important cemeteries in the city of Alexandria?
● Since it was already accumulating in this place, and the importance of this archaeological cemetery is due to its being spacious and the abundance of decorations in it.
● It is one of the clearest examples that express the mixing of both Pharaonic art with Roman art in the city of Alexandria, and it is the finest examples of funeral architecture in the city of Alexandria.
The story of the discovery of that cemetery
● That cemetery was actually found by mere coincidence, and it is worth noting that these excavations had begun in that area approximately in 1892.
● However, it was not found except in the year 1900, and that was a coincidence, and that coincidence was done by a donkey, as the donkey was mentioned. It fell into the main aperture of that cemetery, and it was at a depth of 12 meters, and therefore they knew at that time that there were a number of Pharaonic monuments present in that area, and they were just looking for the reason for the fall of that donkey.
The history of that cemetery
The layout of the cemetery, the ramifications of the tombs, its wonderful sequence, and the difference of all those decorative elements in it made us believe that this cemetery was never built in one go.
A number of excavations had already confirmed that the cemetery had been expanded during a number of the following centuries, but the similarity in those architectural and decorative elements made us not extend to that period during which the cemetery was expanded to a very long time.
What is the price of a ticket to visit the tombs of Kom el Shoqafa for Egyptians?
● Fees for visiting the tombs of Kom el Shoqafa for adults: 20.
● The entrance fee for Egyptian students is only 5 pounds.
What is the price of a ticket to visit the tombs of Kom el Shoqafa for foreigners?
● The fee for visiting the Kom El Shoqafa tombs for foreigners is 80 Egyptian pounds.
● In case the student is a foreigner, the entry fee is only 40 pounds.
