Egypt's Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni and Dr. Zahi Hawass returned a piece of red granite belonging to an ancient Egyptian temple to its rightful place - the base of Amenemhat I's naos. The naos piece was returned to Egypt last October by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, after it was purchased by the Museum from an antiquities collector in New York.

An Egyptian-French archaeological team headed by French archaeologist George Castel uncovered the remains of an ancient city dating back to the Middle Kingdom (1665-2061 BC) in Ain Sokhna about 120 km north of Cairo, announced Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. The discovery includes nine storage areas and three narrow alleyways enclosed within a 600 square meter rectangular building with a single room.

Carefully wrapped in coils by ancient Egyptian sailors almost 4,000 years ago, the ropes were found in a hand-hewn cave at the ancient Red Sea port of Marsa Gawasis, 23 kilometers (14 miles) south of Safaga. Most of the coils were recovered from the back of the cave. There are at least two layers of ropes. In their report, Veldmeijer and colleague Chiara Zazzaro of the University of Naples, estimated that more than 60 complete coils of cords are stored in the long, deep cave.

Inside the burial shaft—a recess crudely carved from bedrock—experts found a closed wooden coffin inscribed with the name "Iker". Near the coffin they also found five arrows made of reeds, three of them still feathered. A team of Spanish archaeologists made the surprise find during routine excavations in a courtyard of the tomb of Djehuty, a high-ranking official under Queen Hatshepsut whose burial site was built on top of graves dating to the Middle Kingdom, 2055 to 1650 B.C.

An intact 11th dynasty burial of a man called Iker has been unearthed in the Dra Abu el-Naga area on Luxor's west bank. Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced the discovery today, adding that the burial was found by a Spanish archaeological mission during routine excavation work in the open courtyard of TT11, the tomb of Djehuty. Dr. Zahi Hawass said that inside Iker's burial shaft, the mission found a closed wooden coffin painted in red and decorated with an inscription running along all four sides.