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Zahi Hawass, a well-known archaeologist in Egypt and its former antiquities minister said: ‘We are rewriting history’ (AFP via Getty Images)
Seated in a yellow plastic laundry basket attached to two thick ropes, I was lowered into the earth. The light got dimmer, the temperature colder. A musty smell filled the air. The only sound was from the workmen above handling the ropes and yelling “shweya” - slowly.
One miscue, and I could fall 100 feet.
I was inside a burial shaft in Saqqara, the ancient necropolis roughly 19 miles south of Cairo. In recent months, a series of discoveries have captivated the world of archaeology.
Enjoy virtual tour in Tomb of Kheti in Egypt s Beni Hasan Necropolis
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On January 17, Egypt’s tourism and antiquities ministry announced that a team of archaeologists had discovered an astonishing number of decorated coffins at the Unesco World Heritage site of Saqqara, near Cairo. Displayed proudly, the 50 wooden coffins looked magnificent: rendered in human form and with bright, colourful and sharp depictions of the mortuary gods of the ancient Egyptian pantheon.
For the Egypt-obsessed, such a discovery was exactly what was needed to distract from an endlessly Covid-19-filled news cycle. Ironically, despite their deep age, the coffins heralded progress, newness – the passage of time when life for so many during this pandemic is tired and repetitive.
Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed a cache of treasures including more than 50 wooden sarcophagi, a funerary temple dedicated to an Old Kingdom queen and a 13-foot-long
As first reported by
Al-Ahram, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and his colleagues discovered the coffins, which appear to date back to the New Kingdom era (1570–1069 B.C.), in 52 burial shafts measuring 33 to 40 feet deep. Paintings of ancient gods and excerpts from the
Book of the Dead, which was thought to help the deceased navigate the afterlife, adorn the sarcophagi.
Hawass tells CBS News’ Ahmed Shawkat that researchers first started excavating the site, which stands next to the pyramid of King Teti, first of the Sixth Dynasty rulers of the Old Kingdom (2680–2180 B.C.), in 2010.
Take out pasta Feasting despite lockdown
Egypt reveals ancient archaeological burial finds south of Cairo
Egypt s best known archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, famed for his Indiana Jones hat and TV specials about ancient Egypt, has unveiled details of an ancient funerary temple in a vast necropolis at Saqqara, south of Cairo.
The latest trove was found in 22 burial shafts, and date back four millennia.
According to Hawass, who was also Egypt s former antiquities minister, archaeologists unearthed the temple of Queen Neit, wife of King Teti, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty that ruled Egypt from 2323 B.C. until 2150 B.C..
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