A senior official at the Egyptian Antiquities Ministry ordered the removal of a monolith from a 2,300 year old shrine located on Aswan’s Elephantine Island for having two Stars of David carved into it, Youm7 reported Thursday.
Mahmoud Afifi, the head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department instructed the German archaeological mission, currently excavating at the Elephantine Island, to remove the monolith and submit a detailed report on how and when these reliefs were carved on the ancient monolith.
“We are not sure about the date when these graffiti were added to the monolith. I rule out that this was made by a member of the German archaeological mission,” Afifi told Youm7.
Veteran tour guide Magdy Abdel Mohsen believed the reliefs are new. “A group of tourists are believed to have defaced the block by drawing the Stars of David on it,” Abdel Mohsen told The Cairo Post Thursday.
“The last time I have visited the site was 2004 and I do not remember seeing the reliefs,” said Abdel Mohsen.
Elephantine is an island in the western bank of the Nile River in Aswan. The southern tip of the island, which was built over a core of natural rounded granite boulders, is the site of an ancient settlement, Abdel Mohsen said. It is also the site of ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman (332 B.C.-395A.D.) temples and shrines dedicated to God Knonum.
