new mummy coffins found in egypt 2020

Egypt discovered a treasure trove of more than 100 sarcophagi near Cairo .Sealed wooden coffins owned by high officials of ancient Egypt about 2,500 years ago. Egypt announced, on Saturday, the discovery of an archaeological treasure that includes more than 100 intact sarcophagi, dating back more than 2,500 years, which is the largest discovery of its kind this year.

The sealed wooden sarcophagi, which were unveiled at the site with great fanfare, were owned by high officials of the Late and Ptolemaic periods of ancient Egypt. It was found in three burial corridors at a depth of 12 meters in the sweeping tomb of Saqqara, south of Cairo.

Archaeologists have opened a coffin to reveal a mummy wrapped in a burial shroud decorated with brightly colored hieroglyphs. Saqqara, home to more than a dozen pyramids, ancient monasteries and animal burial sites, is a vast cemetery in the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Saqqara has not yet disclosed all of its contents. The Minister of Antiquities and Tourism Khaled Al-Anani said at the unveiling ceremony of the treasure. "Excavations are still going on. When we empty one of the coffins, we find an entrance to another."

The latest discovery came just over a month after archaeologists in the area found 59 other preserved and sealed wooden coffins, also dating back more than 2,500 years. The minister said that more than 40 statues of ancient gods and funerary masks have been discovered.

Two other wooden statues were found in the cemetery belonging to an ancient judge from the Sixth Dynasty, according to Mustafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt. Waziri said it was not immediately clear whether the statues depicted any of the judge’s family, but that one statue is believed to depict an individual named Hatab Ka, who was "honored by the king."

"The beauty of the statue ... is reflected in the complexity of its eyebrows, mustache and eyelashes. It is so beautiful and wonderful." The coffins will be distributed in many museums in Egypt, including the Grand Egyptian Museum which has yet to be opened on the Giza plateau.

It is located near the famous pyramids of Giza and is due to open in 2021 after several delays. Al-Anani attributed the wave of discoveries at Saqqara to the extensive excavations in recent years.Another discovery is expected in the vast Saqqara necropolis in December or early 2021. Archaeologists also hope to find an ancient workshop making wooden coffins for mummies.

And my minister explained that the ancient Egyptians used to buy their coffins in this workshop. "We expect it to be somewhere near the coffin corridors," my minister said. Egypt hopes that the archaeological discoveries will stimulate tourism, a sector that has suffered multiple shocks from the 2011 uprising until the Coronavirus pandemic today.