THE ‘biggest archaeological discovery of the year’ will soon be announced by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Archaeologists who have been excavating at the Saqqara Necropolis near Cairo claim they have something very exciting to share with us at a press conference in the next few days.
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Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enany tweeted about the discovery last month.
He said the Egyptian prime minister had visited the site and that they would “announce the details of this discovery soon”.
According to Egypt Today, the big discovery is 100 good condition painted coffins that haven’t been opened for thousands of years.
This follows on from 59 2,500-year-old painted coffins that were found at the site and announced last month.
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Wooded statues and gilded masks were found alongside the coffins.
Most of the burial caskets were painted very clearly like humans .
The coffins and artefacts were all found down newly discovered burial shafts that haven’t been opened for 2,500 years.
Many of the coffins are said to still contain the bodies of the people who were buried inside.
The shafts have even been labelled as a underground “City of the Dead”.
At October’s press conference El-Enany said: “Today is not the end of this discovery, I consider it the beginning.”
Another important find included a bronze statue of the god Nefertum that was covered in precious stones.
The new announcement later this month could reveal more discoveries like this or may even reveal that archaeologists have acted on their plans to look deep inside some of the newly discovered coffins.
A brief history of Ancient Egypt
Here’s everything you need to know…
- The Ancient Egyptians were an advanced civilisation who at one point owned a huge portion of the globe
- The civilisation began about 5,000 years ago when ancient humans began building villages along the River Nile
- It lasted for about 3,000 years and saw the building of complex cities centuries ahead of their time – as well as the famous Great Pyramids
- The Ancient Egyptians were experts at farming and construction
- They invented a solar calendar, and one of the world’s earliest writing systems: The hieroglyph
- The Egyptians were ruled by kings and queens called pharaohs
- Religion and the afterlife were a huge part of Ancient Egyptian culture. They had over 2,000 gods
- Pharaohs built huge elaborate tombs to be buried in, some of which were pyramids – at the time among the largest buildings in the world
- The Egyptians believed in life after death, and important people’s corpses were mummified to preserve their bodies for the afterlife
- The Ancient Egytpian empire fell due to a mix of factors, including wars with other empires and a 100-year period of drought and starvation
Ancient Egyptian burial shaft with 13 completely sealed coffins found after 2,500 years – and could be ‘cursed’
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In other archaeology news, sacrificed llama mummies have been dug up in Peru and they’re almost perfectly preserved after 500 years.
A Viking temple dedicated to Old Norse gods like Thor has been unearthed by archaeologists.
And, a sunken ship has been found in almost perfect condition despite spending 400 years underwater.
Are you excited for this Egyptian discovery reveal? Let us know in the comments…
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
