A CRACK in the wall. A growing pothole. Strange rumblings in the night. When a sinkhole in suburban Abydos collapsed, it opened a portal to a long-lost temple of the dead.

The Luxor Times reports that late in April this year a mysterious subsidence in a narrow suburban alley was drawn to the attention of city municipality workers.

media_camera Urban decay ... Or is it? This sinkhole, which greeted workers in the Egyptian town of Abydos, contained an ancient mystery. Picture: Luxor Times

The street had collapsed into a hole dug from inside one of the neighbouring houses.

Only once workers entered the pit did they realise the dig was by illegal looters — and that they had uncovered an ancient construction.

media_camera Road works ... the full scale of the collapse — and the tightness of the suburban setting — is evident in this picture from the Luxor Times.

Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities police were summoned, and the diggers arrested.

Egyptologists then set about examining exactly what lay beneath a suburb established in 1935, only some 150 metres from the renown Temple of Seti I.

media_camera Into the pit ... The sight that greeted workers and archaeologists, after the rubble and sewage system was removed. Picture: Luxor Times.

After shoring up the entrance and tunnel roof with timbers, a short climb revealed wonderful things. First it was just rubble. Then archaeologists had to dodge a leaking sewage tank.

media_camera Clean-up detail ... Mud, rubble and sewage is cleaned from the memorial chapel’s walls. Picture: Luxor Times.

But a few metres beneath the street and the foundation of the houses were stained limestone blocks, marking the remains of an old wall.

media_camera Out of the past ... An archaeologist sits amid the motifs — and muck — filling the memorial chapel found under homes in Abydos. Picture: Luxor Times.

Once the excavators pushed their way inside, they were greeted with the crowded sight of neat rows of ancient hieroglyphs and high reliefs — proudly declaring the memorial chapel as belonging to Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II — who reigned about 2046-1995BC.

media_camera Identification ... Archaeologists point to a cartouche, or royal mark, declaring the chapel as belonging to Mentuhotep II. Picture: Luxor Times.

Few artefacts and inscriptions dedicated to this pharaoh remain. Most are in and around Abydos, Aswan and Thebes.

media_camera Ancient unifier ... One of the few remaining depictions of Mentuhotep II.

Mentuhotep II reigned at a time of civil war in Egypt, continuing the fight against Lower-Egypt for 39 years of his reign.

His eventual victory saw him unify the two lands once again, and he was declared the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom.

His title means “Horus, he who invigorates the heart of the two lands”.

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Archaeologists have since removed the sewage tank — leakage from which was eroding the stone inscriptions — and have begun restoring the room to prevent further damage.

Excavator Ayman Damarany told the Luxor Times: “I expect there would be more to the site and maybe other sites of the era either former or later to Mentuhotep II.”

Further excavation of the site is restricted due to the many occupied buildings above.

media_camera In memoriam ... Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II, “Horus, he who invigorates the heart of the two lands”. Picture: Luxor Times

Originally published as Sinkhole opens temple of doom