As China and Egypt commemorate 70 years of diplomatic ties, alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Cairo, we take a look at an important area of cooperation between the two countries: archaeology. 

China has made significant strides in the excavation and study of ancient Egyptian monuments. 

Yasser Hakim has more. 

YASSER HAKIM Pyramids Plateau "Egypt has a wealth of ancient monuments just the great pyramids behind me. But the treasures yet to be unearthed are even much more."

China began participating in archaeological fieldwork in Egypt in 2018, bringing its expertise to the effort to unravel some of the enduring mysteries of ancient Egyptian civilization.

China now has three archaeological teams working in Giza and Luxor, collaborating closely with their Egyptian counterparts.

WEN ZHEN Assistant Research Fellow, The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences "After arriving, the first thing we did was introduce them to our systematic methods of archaeological excavation. They said they also wanted to use these methods but had never had the means to do so. Of course, there are also certain restrictions. In China, for example, every team uses drones to assist with archaeological imaging, photography, modeling, and even surveying."

The Chinese teams have unearthed numerous artifacts and uncovered important archaeological features, but their most significant breakthrough came with the discovery of the Southern Sacred Lake at the Montu Temple complex near Karnak Temple in Luxor. 

WEN JING Associate Research Fellow, Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences "All currently known sacred lakes are visible at ground level. Our sacred lake was invisible from the surface and was gradually revealed during excavation. This became the first highly systematic excavation of a sacred lake in the history of Egyptian archaeology, documenting the entire process from invisibility to discovery."

WEN ZHEN Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences "In ancient Egypt, a temple generally had only one sacred lake. Even the nearby Karnak Temple – the world's most famous temple and the largest temple of ancient Egypt, has only one. The fact that we have two sacred lakes therefore goes beyond our previous understanding. As Professor Wen Jing put it, this is the kind of discovery that rewrites textbooks." 

Mohamed Abdel BadIE, who heads the Egyptian Archaeological teams in the mission told me that western archaeologists who worked in the same site for years couldn't discover this lake.  

MOHAMED ABDEL BADIE Head of Egyptian Archaeological Teams "The depth of this lake is more than 50 meters. It is a big thing, not a small artefact. Until now, we have not discovered a sacred lake of this depth and size. In order to discover a sacred lake that no one knew about, this was an impressive achievement."

Officials explain that this breakthrough is partly owed to the technology the Chinese have acquired from excavating the ancient Chinese civilization.

MOHAMED ABDEL BADIE Head of Egyptian Archaeological Team "An archaeologist uses a number of tools on site. For example, one for scanning and another is the total station, the GIS system and maps systems. We have primitive tools, some wooden even. The modern Chinese technology has integrated all of this together. 3D photogrammetry, mapping, archiving and turned it into a visual image of the archaeological site which you can see anywhere in the world in a short period of time. This, in itself, is unprecedented."

Working abroad has also helped the Chinese team gain experience from their colleagues in Egypt.

WEN JING Associate Research Fellow, Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences "They have one interesting technique: they give the stone an 'IV drip', like administering an infusion to a person. They use a syringe to inject chemicals into the stone and stabilize its structure. We also find this method practical. They are very experienced in this area, so we have great confidence in their approach, and this is something we should learn from."

Experts are confident that Chinese scientists will make further significant breakthroughs in the near future.

YASSER HAKIM Pyramids Plateau "The success of the Chinese archaeologists has prompted officials here to call for more Chinese excavation teams to work in Egypt."