A team of US archaeologists has discovered the ruins of a city
dating back to the period of the first farmers 7,000 years ago
in 's Fayyum oasis, the supreme council of antiquities said on
Tuesday. Egypt "An electromagnetic survey revealed the existence
in the Karanis region of a network of walls and roads similar to
those constructed during the Greco-Roman period," the council's
chief Zahi Hawwas said. The remnants of the city are "still
buried beneath the sand and the details of this discovery will
be revealed in due course," Hawwas said. "The artefacts consist
of the remains of walls and houses in terracotta or dressed
limestone as well as a large quantity of pottery and the
foundations of ovens and grain stores," he added. The remains
date back to the Neolithic period between 5,200 and 4,500 BC.
The local director of antiquities, Ahmed Abdel Alim, said the
site was just seven kilometres (four miles) from Fayyum lake and
would probably have lain at the water's edge at the time it was
inhabited.