Egypt has announced the discovery of an ancient treasure trove having more than 100 intact sarcophagi.
Reports had it that the stone coffins date back more than 2,500 years ago and possibly belonged to top officials of the late period and the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt. This is the largest find this year.
They were discovered in three burial shafts at depths of 40 feet in the sweeping Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo.
When archaeologists opened one coffin they showed a mummy wrapped in a burial shroud adorned with brightly coloured hieroglyphic pictorials.
“Saqqara has yet to reveal all of its contents. It is a treasure”, Antiquities and Tourism Minister Khaled al-Anani said at the unveiling ceremony.
journalists gather around an ancient sarcophagus of more than 2500 years old
More than 40 statues of ancient deities and funerary masks were also discovered, the minister further explained. He said that excavations are still going on and a burial shaft of sarcophagi shows an entrance to another one.
According to Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, another two wooden statues were discovered in the tomb belonging to an ancient judge of the 6th dynasty.
The Sarcophagi will be distributed among several museums in Egypt.
