Razed to the ground by the Great Fire of Rome, Emperor Nero’s original palace opened to the public for the first time on Friday after a painstaking 10-year restoration. The ruins of the sumptuous “Domus Transitoria”, once decorated with gold leaf, precious stones and mother of pearl, lie next to a well-preserved 50-seat latrine used communally by builders and slaves. Nero claimed to be a descendant of Aeneas — a legendary hero of the Trojan War, as Homer tells it in the Iliad — and was a big fan of Trojan heroics. He had the ceilings of his palace adorned with mythical scenes from the Trojan War, some of which are now on display at the Palatine Museum next door. The palace was designed to provide respite from baking summer heat, and the emperor would likely have sat on a marble throne facing a line of fountains, under the shade of a silken

In a major archaeological discovery, Egypt on Saturday unveiled the tomb of a Fifth Dynasty official adorned with colourful reliefs and well preserved inscriptions. The tomb, near Saqqara, a vast necropolis south of Cairo, belongs to a senior official named Khuwy who is believed to have been a nobleman during the Fifth Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt about 4300 years ago. “The L-shaped Khuwy tomb starts with a small corridor heading downwards into an antechamber and from there a larger chamber with painted reliefs depicting the tomb owner seated at an offerings table,” said Mohamed Megahed, the excavation team’s head, in an antiquities ministry statement. Flanked by dozens of ambassadors, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enani said the tomb was discovered last month. It is mostly made of white limestone bricks. Ornate paintings boast a special green resin throughout and oils used in the burial process, the ministry said.