In 1996 a donkey stumbled and broke through the desert's surface near the ruined Temple of Alexander, to reveal the first of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Greco-Roman tombs. The area has been named "the Valley of the Mummies" and constitutes the largest concentration of mummies ever found . Excavations will continue for years to come, and at present no tourist visits are allowed. Already the cache is yielding evidence that for the Greco-Romans, mummification was a traditional rather than religious practice, as much of the typical pharaonic detail (mummies facing east, the presence of coffins and canopic jars) is missing.