Ancient Egyptian wine cellar containing coins and ceramics discovered by archaeologists

Region around the Tel Kom was known as producing some of the finest wines during Egypt’s Greco-Roman period

There were no 2,500 year old bottles of the good stuff lying around, but archeologists exploring an ancient Greco-Roman wine cellar north of Egypt's capital Cairo did make a number of intriguing discoveries.

Ptolemaic era coins, fragments of ceramic and mosaic works, and a sophisticated architectural design for controlling temperatures using various types and shapes of stones were among the artefacts they discovered.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities announced the discovery of the wine cellar at Tel Kom al-Trogy in Biheira province in the Nile Delta region, showing off pieces collected inside the subterranean facility.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt’s antiquities council, described a distinguished architectural style inside the facility with thick mud brick walls of various depths, mixed in with irregularly shaped limestone blocks likely used to control temperatures inside the cellar.

The region around the Tel Kom was known as producing some of the finest wines during Egypt’s Greco-Roman period which spanned the from 4th century BC to the arrival of Islam in the 7th Century.

Ptolemaic era coins discovered in an ancient wine cellar north of Cairo (Egypt Ministry of Antiquities)

Egypt, home to the Great Pyramids of Giza, has proven adept at regularly announcing ancient finds to pique the interest of travelers and archeology aficionados.

Last week, the country inaugurated Sphinx International Airport, Cairo’s second aviation hub, situated close to the Great Pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum, which will be operated in conjunction with the Louvre in France. It is scheduled to open in 2020.

Egyptian authorities prize the cultural tourists who visit the country far more than the package holiday snowbirds who visit Red Sea beach resorts, considering the former more prestigious and more willing to spend money.

There are signs Egypt’s economy, battered by the chaos that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, is recovering.

Egypt’s pound hit a two-year high against the dollar over the weekend, in part because of fresh inflows of foreign currencies.