Egypt dig uncovers 2,300-year-old settlement in Alexandria

Cairo: Egypt on Friday announced the discovery of a settlement in the Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria dating back to at least the second century BC.

An Egyptian archaeological team made the find in the city's central Al-Shatby district during nine months of excavations, a statement from the tourism and antiquities ministry said.The settlement had a "residential and commercial" function, the statement said.

The head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, said initial studies showed "a main road and adjacent streets linked by a sewage network".The area was in use from the late Ptolemaic period until the middle of the period of Roman rule, covering a timeframe from "the second century BC until the fourth century AD," Waziri was quoted as saying.