Egypt on Monday unveiled a 2,500-year-old cache of artifacts that the country’s antiquities officials revealed were recently discovered in the famous Saqqara necropolis.
The artifacts were on display at a temporary exhibition near the stepped pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, 15 miles from Cairo, the Egyptian capital.
Mostafa Waziri, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the fund includes 250 sarcophagi painted with mummies in good condition inside, 150 bronze statues of ancient deities and bronze vessels used in rituals of Isis, the goddess of the fertility of ancient Egyptian mythology. all about 500 BC
Officials also presented a headless bronze statue of Imhotep, the chief architect of Pharaoh Djoser who ruled ancient Egypt between 2630 BC and 2611 BC.
250 painted sarcophagi containing mummies in good condition were part of the sample. Mohamed Abd El Ghany / REUTERS The cache of ancient artifacts dates back 2,500 years. Djoser in Saqqara.Mohamed Abd El Ghany / REUTERS A man takes a selfie next to the sarcophagi shown.Mohamed Abd El Ghany / REUTERS
“I am very proud that the discovery was made by Egyptians, and this will not be the last discovery here,” Waziri said, according to a report.
The artifacts will be on permanent display at the new Great Egyptian Museum, a project near the Pyramids of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo that will open in September.
The Saqqara site is part of an extensive necropolis in the ancient capital of Egypt, Memphis, which includes the pyramids of Giza and the smaller pyramids of Abu Sir, Dahshur and Abu Ruwaysh. In the 1970s, the ruins of Memphis were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The artifacts were recently discovered in the famous necropolis of Saqqara. Mohamed Abd El Ghany / REUTERS The artifacts will be taken to a permanent exhibition at the new Great Egyptian Museum.Mohamed Abd El Ghany / REUTERS Paintings on a sarcophagus
The presentation of the new finds comes after five well-preserved ancient tombs in Saqqara were unearthed in March. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said the tombs are at least 4,000 years old.
Last year, a team of archaeologists from southern Egypt discovered what could be the oldest large-scale brewery in the world dating back more than 5,000 years.
With post cables