Meet 17-year-old Arsh Ali, India's youngest archaeologist

Ali is trying to trace evidence of an ancient Buddhist connection between Ashoka and Egypt

In April this year, Saqqara, an ancient burial ground in Egypt, had an unusual visitor: a young man who had come not to admire the famous step pyramid of Djoser but to unravel a mystery engraved on a particular tombstone. All of 17, he had travelled from Lucknow in search of a tombstone which he well knew no longer existed. But he also knew that even the original location of a lost piece of antiquity can reveal things. At least to an archaeologist. And that’s what this young man is — India’s youngest archaeologist, Arsh Ali.

Ali’s visit to Saqqara