SAQQARA: Egypt announced Saturday the discovery of an ancient treasure trove of more than a 100 intact sarcophagi, the largest such find this year.
The sealed wooden coffins, unveiled on site amid fanfare, belonged to top officials of the Late Period and the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt.
They were found in three burial shafts at depths of 12 meters (40 feet) in the sweeping Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo.
Archaeologists opened one coffin to reveal a mummy wrapped in a burial shroud adorned with brightly colored hieroglyphic pictorials.
Saqqara is the burial site of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The huge find came just over a month after archaeologists in the area found 59 other well-preserved and sealed wooden coffins dating back more than 2,500 years ago.
“Saqqara has yet to reveal all of its contents. It is a treasure,” Antiquities and Tourism Minister Khaled Al-Anany said at the unveiling ceremony.
“Excavations are still underway. Whenever we empty a burial shaft of sarcophagi, we find an entrance to another.”
More than 40 statues of ancient deities and funerary masks were also discovered, he said.
They will be distributed among several museums in Egypt including the yet-to-opened Grand Egyptian Museum at the Giza plateau.
The minister attributed the flurry of discoveries in Saqqara to extensive excavation works in recent years.
Another discovery in the vast necropolis is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, he added.
Archaeologists also hope to find an ancient workshop for manufacturing wooden coffins for mummies soon, according to Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Egypt hopes archaeological discoveries will spur tourism, a sector which has suffered multiple shocks ever since a 2011 uprising up until today’s coronavirus pandemic.
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Egypt finds treasure trove of over 100 sarcophagi
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Egypt finds treasure trove of over 100 sarcophagi
- The sealed wooden coffins, unveiled on site amid fanfare, belonged to top officials of the Late Period and the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt
Sudan army breaks siege on key southern city Kadugli: army sources
KHARTOUM: Sudanese army forces broke Tuesday a paramilitary siege on the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, two army sources told AFP.
“Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege,” one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.
The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.
The allies had also besieged the neighboring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.
“After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them,” another army source told AFP.
Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.
In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war’s fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
“Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege,” one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.
The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.
The allies had also besieged the neighboring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.
“After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them,” another army source told AFP.
Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.
In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war’s fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
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