An Egyptian archaeological team, led by Dr. Mustafa Waziri,  announced on Tuesday they had discovered a “complete residential city from the Roman era” in the southern city of Luxor.

The team discovered a complete Roman-era residential area that dates back 1,800 years. They discovered the remnants of several Roman buildings as well as the foundations of two piegeon towers. The towers contained many ceramic vessels, which were used for nesting pigeons, according to Dr Fathy Yᴀssin, Director General of Antiquities of Upper Egypt.

Several workshops for the manufacturing and smelting of metals were also uncovered. A number of copper and bronze pots, pottery, flasks, water kettles, and Roman coins were discovered in the workshops.

Previous excavations in the area have uncovered a number of Byzantine relics, more Roman coins, a part of a wall, and an ancient Roman storehouse.

The Roman city dates to the second to third centuries A.D. Credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

The find, on the eastern bank of the Nile near Luxor’s iconic eponymous temple, is the first full ancient city to be discovered in Egypt.

According to Mostafa Waziri, the unearthed city is believed to be an extension of the ancient city of Thebes.  Thebes was one of the largest and most important cities in ancient Egypt on whose remains modern day Luxor now sits.

This latest settlement, which dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, is the “oldest and most important city unearthed on the eastern bank of Luxor,” he said.

While the Roman residential area’s existence was already known, recent excavations discovered a large portion of it, which may shed new light on what Luxor was like in Roman times.

The new finds have “the potential to elucidate some critical research questions about Roman-era [Luxor], if the analysis is done carefully,” Susanna McFadden, a professor of art history at the University of Hong Kong who specializes in Greco-Roman art, told Live Science

Dr. Waziri praised the efforts of Egyptian archaeological teams this year, saying that more digging would be done on the site as it is believed that more relics are in the area, waiting to be found.