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Egypt announces the discovery of an ancient treasure of more than 100 intact sarcophagi PHOTO: Twitter / AFP news agency
Egypt has announced the discovery of an ancient treasure of more than 100 intact sarcophagi, the largest find of this year. The sealed wooden coffins belong to senior officials from the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period of ancient Egypt, BGNES reported.
They were found in three burial pits at a depth of 12 meters in the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo. Archaeologists opened a coffin to find a mummy wrapped in a funerary shroud decorated with brightly colored hieroglyphic paintings.
Saqqara is the burial site of the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The huge find came just over a month after archaeologists in the area found another 59 sealed and well-preserved wooden coffins dating back more than 2,500 years. “Sakara has not revealed all its contents yet. This is a treasure,” Antiquities and Tourism Minister Khaled al-Anani said during the opening ceremony. “Excavations are still ongoing. Whenever we empty the shaft of one tomb of sarcophagi, we find an entrance for another.”
More than 40 statues of ancient deities and funerary masks have also been found, he said. They will be distributed among various museums in Egypt, including the Giza Plateau Museum.
Another discovery in the vast necropolis is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Archaeologists also hope to find an ancient workshop for the production of wooden coffins for mummies, according to Mustafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Egypt hopes that archaeological discoveries will boost tourism, a sector that has suffered many setbacks from the 2011 uprising to the current coronavirus pandemic.
Egypt announced on Saturday the discovery of an ancient treasure of more than 100 intact sarcophagi, the largest find of this year https://t.co/ScyRI13Vvu
– AFP news agency (@AFP) November 14, 2020
It is the latest in a series of discoveries in the same area of the country south of the capital, Cairo. https://t.co/qEF2wg3UsG
– euronews (@euronews) November 14, 2020
Treasures of #Saqqara: dozens of sarcophagi and statues unearthed in Egypt pic.twitter.com/F8KUPsUcYk
– DNE Buzz (@Dnebuzz) November 14, 2020
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