140 sealed sarcophagi at Saqqara, Egypt

Last Saturday in a provisional exhibition at the feet of the eminent Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, color vibrant sealed tombs and statues that were buried more than 2,500 years ago were displayed.

Egyptian officials have announced the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins, some with mummies inside and some 40 gold-plated statues in a vast pharaonic necropolis south of the capital, Cairo. The discovery is the latest in a series of archaeological finds in Egypt. Since September, antiquities authorities revealed at least 140 sealed sarcophagi, with mummies inside most of them, in the same area.

Saqqara site is part of the necropolis at Egypt’s ancient capital of Memphis that includes the famed Giza Pyramids, as well as smaller pyramids at Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. Memphis ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1970s.

Archaeologists opened a coffin with a well-preserved mummy wrapped in cloth inside. They also carried out X-raying picturing the structures of the ancient mummy, showing how the body had been conserved.

Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Anany held a news conference explaining that the discovered items date back to the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt for some 300 years – from around 320 BC to about 30 BC, and the Late Period (664-332 BC).

The minister said authorities would move the artefacts to at least three Cairo museums including the Grand Egyptian Museum that Egypt is building near the Giza Pyramids.

Egyptian archaeologists found other “shafts full of coffins, well-gilded, well-painted, well-decorated,” Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters on Saturday.

Lama Alhassanieh