100 sarcophagi uncovered in ancient Egyptian burial ground

  Egypt uncovered more than 100 sarcophagi in an ancient burial ground called Saqqara on Saturday, November 14, 2020, the same ancient burial ground where dozens of coffins were also found last month as the country continues to make major discoveries in its bid to attract tourists back on track.   The coffins were extracted from 3 burial shafts that are 12 meters in depth, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa El-Waziri said, adding to the fifty nine sarcophagi unearthed last month in the same region, which served as the necropolis for the ancient capital of Memphis, one of the major UNESCO world heritage sites.   “That’s the biggest excavation trophy found in 2020, but we are not stopping here yet. The finding of one burial shaft leads to another,” antiquities minister Khaled El-Anany told reporters.   “Sakkara hasn’t yet revealed 01% of its secrets. We can discover tombs and burial shafts in every single spot in this zone.”   Some of the newly-discovered caskets, which were colored and sealed, were displayed in a temporary tent overlooking the Step pyramid of King Zoser in the vast necropolis.

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The gilded and wooden sarcophagi included mummies of priests and ancient grandmen of the state belonging to the late and Ptolemaic periods, dating back more than 2,550 years ago.   El-Waziri said Egyptian missions were also stepping up their efforts to locate the workshop where the coffins were made. He related the discrepancy in the sarcophagi’s colors and shapes to the financial power of their owners, with some capable of paying for gilded coffins whereas others only able to pay for wooden ones.   Funerary masks and forty wooden statues of Sakkara deity PTAH SOKER were also uncovered in the burial shafts.   Egyptian archeologists carried out a CT scan on one of the mummies during the announcement, stating that the deceased had died in his 40s and that he didn’t suffer from any chronic illnesses.   Sakkara is home to over thirteen pyramids, including King Djoser’s, which is considered the oldest stone structure of its size ever existed and still remains on earth. A significant series of discoveries have been made there in the past few years, including the uncovering of a 4,400-year-old burial of a royal priest named Wahtye in 2018 and the discovery of hundreds of animal mummies and statues a year after.   Egypt hopes its major discoveries will be a good drive behind the potential revival of  its vital tourism industry, which took a fresh blow because of the COVID-19 pandemic virus just when it had begun to recover from the aftermath of revolutions and civil instability in 2011 and 2013.  

Egypt uncovered more than 100 sarcophagi in an ancient burial ground called Saqqara on Saturday, November 14, 2020, the same ancient burial ground where dozens of coffins were also found last month as the country continues to make major discoveries in its bid to attract tourists back on track.

The coffins were extracted from 3 burial shafts that are 12 meters in depth, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa El-Waziri said, adding to the fifty nine sarcophagi unearthed last month in the same region, which served as the necropolis for the ancient capital of Memphis, one of the major UNESCO world heritage sites.

“That’s the biggest excavation trophy found in 2020, but we are not stopping here yet. The finding of one burial shaft leads to another,” antiquities minister Khaled El-Anany told reporters.

“Sakkara hasn’t yet revealed 01% of its secrets. We can discover tombs and burial shafts in every single spot in this zone.”

Some of the newly-discovered caskets, which were colored and sealed, were displayed in a temporary tent overlooking the Step pyramid of King Zoser in the vast necropolis. The gilded and wooden sarcophagi included mummies of priests and ancient grandmen of the state belonging to the late and Ptolemaic periods, dating back more than 2,550 years ago.

El-Waziri said Egyptian missions were also stepping up their efforts to locate the workshop where the coffins were made. He related the discrepancy in the sarcophagi’s colors and shapes to the financial power of their owners, with some capable of paying for gilded coffins whereas others only able to pay for wooden ones.

Funerary masks and forty wooden statues of Sakkara deity PTAH SOKER were also uncovered in the burial shafts.

Egyptian archeologists carried out a CT scan on one of the mummies during the announcement, stating that the deceased had died in his 40s and that he didn’t suffer from any chronic illnesses.

Sakkara is home to over thirteen pyramids, including King Djoser’s, which is considered the oldest stone structure of its size ever existed and still remains on earth. A significant series of discoveries have been made there in the past few years, including the uncovering of a 4,400-year-old burial of a royal priest named Wahtye in 2018 and the discovery of hundreds of animal mummies and statues a year after.

Egypt hopes its major discoveries will be a good drive behind the potential revival of  its vital tourism industry, which took a fresh blow because of the COVID-19 pandemic virus just when it had begun to recover from the aftermath of revolutions and civil instability in 2011 and 2013.