A 5,000-year-old brewery has been discovered in Egypt – it could be the world’s oldest known beer factory thought to have dated back to the era of King Narmer, according to the Supreme Council of Antiquities. King Narmer founded the First Dynasty and is considered to have unified Egypt.

The brewery was discovered in Abydos, an ancient burial ground in the desert, by archaeologists and a joint Egyptian-American team.

Thousands of gallons of beer are thought to have been produced at the site after finding several units containing about 40 pots used to heat a mixture of grain and water to make beer. The brewery was made up of eight areas, about 20m long and it is estimated that large-scale production was used with over 22,000 litres produced at a time.

The brewery “may have been built in this place specifically to supply the royal rituals that were taking place inside the funeral facilities of the kings of Egypt”, said an Egyptian tourism ministry statement quoted archaeologist and mission co-head Matthew Adams of New York University.

“Evidence for the use of beer in sacrificial rites was found during excavations in these facilities,” according to a statement.

Photos courtesy of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities