Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered what they believe to be the oldest harbor ever found in the country, including the oldest known papyrus documents.
The discovery was made by a team of French and Egyptian researchers from the French Institute for Archaeological Studies. The harbor is about 4,500 years old, dating to the era of Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) in the Fourth Dynasty.
According to Pierre Tallet of the University of Paris - Sorbonne, the discovery "predates by more than 1,000 years any other port structure known in the world."
The port is thought to be among the key commercial ports in ancient Egypt, being a prominent location for the export of copper and other goods from the Sinai Peninsula. A number of stone anchors and docks were also found at the site.
The 40 papyri found at the site described the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians in Khufu's 27th year of rule.
"These are the oldest papyri ever found in Egypt," Egypt's antiquities minister Mohamed Ibrahim said.
Writings in the papyri describe a number of activities, including the arrangements for supplying workers leaving the port with beer and bread. One of them describes the daily routine of an official called Merrer, who took part in constructing the Great Pyramid.
"He mainly reported about his many trips to the Turah limestone quarry to fetch block for the building of the pyramid," Tallet told Discovery News. "Although we will not learn anything new about the construction of the Cheops monument, this diary provides for the first time an insight on this matter."
The discovery follows other significant archaeological finds this month, including the discovery of Pluto's Gate in Turkey and the possible birthplace of Abraham in Iraq.
