SAQQARA, Egypt —
Egypt on Monday unveiled a cache of sarcophagi and bronze statuettes
— including one of pioneering architect Imhotep — at the Saqqara archaeological
site south of Cairo.
اضافة اعلان
They were the
latest in a series of discoveries made in the area.
Saqqara is a
vast necropolis of the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, a
UNESCO World Heritage site home to more than a dozen pyramids, animal burial sites, and
ancient Coptic Christian monasteries.
Among the 150
bronze statuettes unearthed in the latest findings is one of Imhotep, who
“revolutionized architecture” in the ancient world, Mostafa Waziri, head of
Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters.
Imhotep, who
lived in the third millennium BC, built the Djoser step pyramid, one of the
earliest in ancient Egypt. He later became the god of medicine.
Waziri revealed
a goal for the archaeological mission, which has so far undertaken four seasons
of excavations in the area: “To find the tomb of Imhotep.”
Other unearthed statuettes depict various gods and
goddesses including Bastet, Anubis, Osiris, Amunmeen, Isis, Nefertum, and
Hathor, according to a statement from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
The mission also
unveiled “250 wooden sarcophagi with mummies inside, dating back to the Late
Period,” around the fifth century BC, Waziri said.
Inside one
sarcophagus, the team found an untouched and sealed papyrus, he said. It has
been transferred to the laboratory of the
Egyptian Museum in central Cairo for
full restoration and study, Waziri said.
He added the
papyrus — estimated at nine meters long — likely contains chapters of the Book
of the Dead, collections of funerary texts composed of spells that Egyptian
used to guide the dead through the underworld.
The sarcophagi
will be moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which authorities hope to
inaugurate near
Cairo’s Giza pyramids later this year after repeated delays.
Hopes are high
that the new museum, in addition to archaeological discoveries of recent years,
will help revive the country’s vital tourism industry.
The sector has
been battered by successive blows, including the 2011 revolution and ensuing
unrest, the coronavirus pandemic, and now a halt of Russian and Ukrainian
tourists, who accounted for a large portion of the country’s visitors.
Among other findings at
Saqqara, Egypt in March unveiled five ancient
Pharaonic tombs, and in January
last year announced the discovery of more than 50 wooden sarcophagi dating from
the New Kingdom which ended in the 11th century BC.
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