Egypt unveils biggest ancient coffin find in over a century

Egypt on Saturday unveiled the details of 30 ancient wooden coffins with mummies inside discovered in the southern city of Luxor in the biggest find of its kind in more than a century, reports Reuters.

A team of Egyptian archaeologists discovered a “distinctive group of 30 coloured wooden coffins for men, women and children” in a cache at Al-Asasif cemetery on Luxor’s west bank, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement on Saturday.

“It is the first large human coffin cache ever discovered since the end of the 19th century,” the Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany was quoted as saying during a ceremony in Luxor.

The intricately carved and painted coffins, three thousand years old, were closed with mummies inside and were in “a good condition of preservation, colours and complete inscriptions,” the statement added.

They were for male and female priests and children, said Mostafa Waziri, the excavation team leader, dating back to the 10th century BC under the rule of the 22nd Pharaonic dynasty.

The coffins will undergo restoration before being moved to a showroom at the Grand Egyptian Museum, due to open next year next to the Giza pyramids, the ministry said.

Read: Egypt to reopen historic Baron Empain Palace after $6m restoration

A wooden coffin, whose brightly-coloured decorations are still visible, is introduced to press members after it was uncovered at the Theban necropolis of Asasif in Luxor, Egypt on October 19, 2019 [EGYPT’S MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES / HANDOUT – Anadolu Agency]

A wooden coffin, whose brightly-coloured decorations are still visible, is introduced to press members after it was uncovered at the Theban necropolis of Asasif in Luxor, Egypt on October 19, 2019 [EGYPT’S MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES / HANDOUT – Anadolu Agency]

Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities Khaled El-Anany (R) speaks during the publicity of the wooden coffins, whose brightly-coloured decorations are still visible, to press members after they were uncovered at the Theban necropolis of Asasif in Luxor, Egypt on October 19, 2019 [EGYPT’S MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES / HANDOUT – Anadolu Agency]

Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities Khaled El-Anany (C) informs the participants on the wooden coffins, whose brightly-coloured decorations are still visible, during their publicity to press members after they were uncovered at the Theban necropolis of Asasif in Luxor, Egypt on October 19, 2019 [EGYPT’S MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES / HANDOUT – Anadolu Agency]

Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities Khaled El-Anany informs the participants on the wooden coffins, whose brightly-coloured decorations are still visible, during their publicity to press members after they were uncovered at the Theban necropolis of Asasif in Luxor, Egypt on October 19, 2019 [EGYPT’S MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES / HANDOUT – Anadolu Agency]

A wooden coffin, whose brightly-coloured decorations are still visible, is introduced to press members after it was uncovered at the Theban necropolis of Asasif in Luxor, Egypt on October 19, 2019 [EGYPT’S MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES / HANDOUT – Anadolu Agency]