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History & Heritage

9.23.2020

Egypt: new sarcophagi discovered in Saqqara

The vast necropolis of Saqqara, in Egypt, never ceases to surprise historians and archaeologists. Egyptian authorities announced last Sunday the discovery of 14 new 2500-year-old sarcophagi at the site southwest of Cairo.

They had been sleeping peacefully at the bottom of a well in the necropolis for nearly 2500 years. These 14 sarcophagi from the Saqqara site come in addition to the 13 others discovered at the same location a week earlier, as the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities reported in a press release.

The coffins were still perfectly sealed and stacked on top of each other. It is not risky to assume, therefore, that the necropolis, which includes the famous Step Pyramid of Pharaoh Djoser, the first of the Pharaonic era and one of the oldest monuments in the world, has not yet revealed all its secrets.

 

Egyptian Minister of Antiquities / AFP

Impeccable conservation

The sarcophagi, well preserved, display colorful patterns and numerous hieroglyphs. Their perfect state of preservation indicates without the slightest doubt that the coffins have not been opened since they were buried inside the well.

This is good news for Egyptian tourism which, already suffering since the 2011 revolution, is affected, as everywhere else in the world, by the coronavirus pandemic.

 

See also

The Egyptian sarcophagus of the famous priest Nedjemankh is back home

Published on 23 September 2020

#antiquities

#Egypt