Situated just to the west of Pompey's Pillar, the Catacombs of Kom El Shuqafa are the largest and most important burial site in Egypt and is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. The necropolis consists of a series of Alexandrian tombs, statues and archaeological objects of the Pharaonic funerary cult with Hellenistic and early Imperial Roman influences. Due to the time period, many of the features of the catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa merge Roman, Greek and Egyptian cultures. The cemetery was found in 1952 during excavation to lay the foundation of a building when a donkey fell from the market above into the central shaft.. The name of the site, Kom el Shoqafa, means "Mound of Shards." The name comes from heaps of broken pottery in the area.