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The wooden coffins, solemnly displayed at the site of their discovery, belonged to high-ranking officials buried during the late state period and during the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
The sarcophagi were found in three burial pits at a depth of about 12 meters in the great Sakara necropolis, south of Cairo.
When a coffin was opened, archaeologists found a mummy wrapped in a shroud and decorated with brightly colored hieroglyphs.
The residents of Memphis, the ancient capitals of Egypt, were buried in Sakara. This repository is now a UNESCO world heritage site.
Just over a month ago, archaeologists found 59 other well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins in the area, dating back more than 2,500 years.
“Sakara has not yet revealed everything he has. This is a treasure,” said Chaled Ananis, Minister of Antiquities and Tourism, during the presentation ceremony.
“Excavations are still going on. As soon as we empty a sarcophagus shaft, we find another entrance,” he said.
More than 40 statues and funerary masks of ancient deities have also been found, the minister said.
The finds will be distributed to various Egyptian museums, including the still-to-open Grand Egyptian Museum on the Giza plateau.
Kh. al Anany said excavations at Sakara in recent years have been very rich in finds.
The minister added that another discovery in the huge necropolis will be announced in the coming weeks.
Archaeologists also hope to quickly find ancient workshops in wooden coffins where mummies were buried, said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Egypt hopes that archaeological discoveries will revitalize tourism. The sector has experienced many shocks in recent times, from the uprising of the Arab Spring in 2011 to the current coronavirus pandemic.
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