TOPOGRAPHY AND URBANISM

The Necropolis

For the first time in its young life, the CEA left the Bruccheion quarter, where the team has been digging for some ten years, in response to an invitation from the Egytpian antiquities service to undertake a dig in the Necropolis, now the modern district of Gabbari. This urgent intervention was provoked by the construction of an elevated highway.

Between 1997 and 2000, the dig uncovered, alongside a series of surface burials, an ensemble of more than forty collective underground tombs dating back to the 3rd century BC and in use until the 7th AD. Here, we are not dealing with some isolated tombs or a group of hypogea, rather with a tight interlocking ensemble that can enrich our knowledge of the types and styles of burial in Alexandria. Despite our efforts, since the end of the dig in February 2000, bulldozers have replaced the archaeologists. This irreversible loss simply increases the importance of publishing the work. A first volume appeared in June 2001.

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