Two thousand rams' heads discovered in the temple of Ramses II at Abydos

More than two thousand mummified rams' heads dating from the Ptolemaic era - the last in Pharaonic Egypt - have been discovered in the mortuary temple of Ramses II in the ancient city of Abydos, 435 kilometers south of Cairo , Egyptian authorities announced on Sunday, March 26

Two thousand rams' heads discovered in the temple of Ramses II at Abydos

More than two thousand mummified rams' heads dating from the Ptolemaic era - the last in Pharaonic Egypt - have been discovered in the mortuary temple of Ramses II in the ancient city of Abydos, 435 kilometers south of Cairo , Egyptian authorities announced on Sunday, March 26. Other animal mummies (sheep, dogs, goats, cows, gazelles, mongooses) were also unearthed during these excavations. According to Sameh Iskandar, who heads the New York University archaeological mission behind this discovery, these are offerings testifying that the cult of Ramses II was still "celebrated a thousand years after his death". The team of archaeologists also discovered the remains of a palace with walls 5 meters thick, much older than the temple: while Ramesses II was a ruler of the 19th Dynasty and reigned in the 13th century before our age, the palace in question dates back to the Sixth Dynasty, a millennium earlier.