A fact from Royal necropolis of Ayaa appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 5 October 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that the royal necropolis of Ayaa in Sidon, Lebanon, was accidentally discovered in the late 19th century by a workman who stumbled upon a shaft and chamber tomb while quarrying for stone?
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Hi Elias Ziade, I just started writing this same article, as I have been reading about it again in the context of the second Egyptian sarcophagus. I only noticed this when I saw it linked to one of the images I was going to use. Do you mind if I edit your draft?
Hi Elias Ziade, do you remember where the number "21 sarcophagi" came from in the first paragraph? I am looking for the original sources so we can count all 21 of them. I have seen it in Joubin (1893): "Après la découverte que nous fîmes en 1887-88 à Saïda de vingt et un sarcophages".
We only have 18 mentioned on this page, so we are missing three. I wonder whether they were from Ayaa, or perhaps from nearby locations (particularly Baramie). Onceinawhile (talk) 17:14, 22 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
…that the discovery of a necropolis in Lebanon was the reason for the construction of the main building of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums?
The alternate would be something like “…that significant ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Lycian and Greek sarcophagi were found together in Sidon”. This fact is almost as amazing to me as Stelae of Nahr el-Kalb; the area really was the crossroads of the ancient world.
The discovery of the necropolis was the reason for the building of the main building of the Istanbul Archaeology Museums. I see you were on the edge of writing this with the section "Commissioning of the Museum".
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
ALT1: ... that the royal necropolis of Ayaa in Sidon, Lebanon, was accidentally discovered in the late 19th century by a workman who stumbled upon a shaft and chamber tomb while quarrying for stone? Source: Hamdy Bey & Reinach 1892a, p. I.
ALT2: ... that the Alexander Sarcophagus, found in the royal necropolis of Ayaa, is a renowned masterpiece of ancient art featuring exceptional bas-reliefs and preserved polychrome paint? Source: Hamdy Bey & Reinach 1892a, p. 8.
ALT3: ... that the excavation of Hypogeum A of the royal necropolis of Ayaa included the opening of seven burial chambers, all containing at least one sarcophagus? Source: Hamdy Bey & Reinach 1892a, p. II.