Ruins of an ancient temple dating back to the reign of pharaoh Ramses II (1250 B.C.) have been discovered inside a mosque in Egypt. The discovery was made during the restoration work of the mosque which was erected as a shrine to Muslim saint Abul Haggag in the 13th century A.D. and was damaged partly in June.

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The well preserved ruins made the archaeologists conclude that during the construction process of Christians and Muslims shrines on top of Egyptian holy sites, builders spoiled the ancient artwork in the temples but the few of them remained almost untouched. The reliefs are thought to depict the temple’s dedication.

The carved inscriptions on the reliefs provide best examples of enigmatic writing which was an unusual form of hieroglyphic text in which each glyph could stand for an entire word, phrase or concept.

It is said that the discovery is likely to touch a nerve among religious leaders because the newly exposed reliefs hold representations of humans and animals, which are forbidden inside mosques. Removing the ancient features completely would cause damage to the mosque. The team of researchers is baffled as to how they should proceed further in this case. To proceed further in, the team is in talks with mosque leaders and it is anticipated that they would reach a compromise getting the best way out so that none of the monuments of antiquity are deeply affected.

Source: National Geographic 101201