"Important cemeteries dating back to the Roman age along with nine statues were unearthed this year among other key discoveries," Culture Minister Farouq Hosni said Monday 21/7/2008.

The burial ground found in Giza's Kom Abou-Billou district housed a number of statutes of some gods, topped by Aphrodite, and several engravings of the Roman age, the Minister told reporters.

An archaeological mission has also found in Cairo's district of Matariya a huge number of granite chunks representing parts of a giant statute of Ramses II, third ruler of the 19th Dynasty, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)'s Secretary General Zahi Hawwas said.

A cemetery dating back to the Sixth Dynasty was also unearthed in Matariya, he said.

In Damietta, a number of limestone sarcophaguses were also found, he added.