Egypt finds 2,000-year-old coastal tombs and desert Byzantine city

CAIRO, July 05 (AFP): Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered a series of nearly 2,000-year-old tombs on the Mediterranean coast and the remains of a planned Byzantine-era city in the western desert, the tourism and antiquities ministry said.
The coastal discovery was made at Marina El-Alamein, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of Alexandria, where recent excavations uncovered 18 Greco-Roman tombs, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Several burial chambers were discovered with their original stone blocking slabs still in place, while a granite sarcophagus measuring about 2.5 metres (8 feet) was found with its lid intact, suggesting the graves had remained sealed for nearly two millennia.