Wooden sarcophagi during the inauguration of an ancient treasure of more than 100 sarcophagi.
Saqqara:
Egypt announced on Saturday the discovery of an ancient treasure of more than 100 intact sarcophagi, the largest find this year.
The sealed wooden coffins, revealed on the spot amidst fanfare, belonged to high officials from the Late Period and Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt.
They were found in three burial pits at a depth of 12 meters (40 feet) in the expansive Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo.
Archaeologists opened a coffin to reveal a mummy wrapped in a funerary shroud adorned with brightly colored hieroglyphs.
Saqqara is the burial site of the ancient Egyptian capital of 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.
“Saqqara has yet to reveal all its contents. It is a treasure,” Antiquities and Tourism Minister Khaled al-Anany said at the opening ceremony.
“Excavations are still ongoing. Whenever we empty one burial pit of sarcophagi, we find an entrance to another.”
More than 40 statues of ancient deities and funerary masks were also discovered, he said.
They will be distributed among various museums in Egypt, including the as-yet un-opened Grand Egyptian Museum on the Giza plateau.
The minister attributed the wave of discoveries at Saqqara to extensive excavation work in recent years.
Another discovery in the vast necropolis is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, he added.
Archaeologists also hope to find an ancient workshop to make wooden coffins for mummies soon, according to Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Egypt hopes the archaeological discoveries will spur tourism, a sector that has suffered multiple shocks from the 2011 uprising to the current coronavirus pandemic.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
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