Egyptian Monuments: Mazura (Kom el-Ahmar)

Kom el-Ahmar, Ancient Village or Settlement in Upper Egypt (South)

Mazura (Kom el-Ahmar)

About half an hour’s drive to the south of Dishasha, somewhere between the towns of Biba and el-Fashna in the Governorate of Beni Suef, is a site known locally as Kom el-Ahmar or Mazura. I have visited this site but I can find no information about it and it does not seem to be marked on the maps. There is a gafir at the site who will show visitors around, but only speaks Arabic and could only tell us that there were burials here.

Located near a small canal, Kom el-Ahmar is a large archaeological site which is covered in red pottery sherds and contains many graves (presumably) of different types. Some of the graves are pits in the sand and some are brick-lined. There is also a limestone paved platform and low remains of stone and brick walls which must once have contained a structure (temple or shrine?) but I do not know which period this is dated to. Towards the small modern village of Mazura, about one kilometre from the cemetery site, another area is covered in broken pottery and lying by the track there are large sections of plain round columns scattered haphazardly on the ground.

The site is a low grass covered mound located in the midst of the cultivation. This is the remains of the town and temple mound of the Dynastic site later called Hierakonpolis by he Greeks. Here were found; the 2200 BCE over life size copper statue of 6th Dynasty Pharao Pepy and the smaller statue of his son which are now in the Cairo Egyptian Museum, the 2300 BCE golden hawk head of Horus, the two stone statue of 2700 BCE 2nd Dynasty Pharao Khasekhemwy (the father of the first pyramid builder Djoser) and the remains of the 9 Meter tall ceremonial enclosure with granite architectural elements (listed separately).

Nekhen remained a cult center for Horus even after it was supplanted by Edfu as both provincial capital and temple center.

The Dynastic site is completed by the collection of inter-related Predynastic sites stretching for over 4km across the low desert further, the site of Egypt's first capital and before of capital of Upper Egypt.

Here were found the 3100 BCE the palette of Narmer, a stone political document attesting the unification of Egypt, the 3000 BCE life-sized human statue of a priest from the temple of Horus one of the earliest painted Predynastic tomb, the earliest preserved house in Egypt from 3600 BCE, Egypt's earliest wooden temple dating to 3400 BCE, Egypt's first industrial breweries dating to 3600 BCE, the first predynastic Mummies dating back to 3600 BCE, One of the only known Egyptian rock-paintings north of the first cataract at Aswan, the first huge stone-cut tomb dating to 3100 BCE with a side chamber sealed with a portcullis stone as would later be the case in the pyramids, and the earliest preserved royal palace dating back to 2900 BCE.

The site is not accessible due to ongoing excavations.

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