14 Fully Intact and Sealed Coffins Discovered after 2,500 Years in Egypt’s Saqqara

The Saqqara necropolis southwest of Cairo has yielded yet a new discovery of 14 intact and sealed sarcophagi estimated to be 2,500 years old. The sarcophagi, or ornate coffins, are made of wood and still retain some of their original colour.

This discovery brings the total number of newly unearthed coffins to 27, after 13 were discovered in similar condition earlier this month in a neighbouring burial shaft.

The total number of coffins and artefacts buried in this site are as yet unknown according to Waziri, but El-Enany said that it “includes the largest number of coffins in one burial since the discovery of the Al-Asasif cachette.”

Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mustafa Waziri, who heads this archaeological mission, stated that details on the excavation will soon be communicated officially in a press conference in Saqqara.

The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has published a series of videos teasing at footage of the discoveries, in the most recent of which Minister Khaled El-Enany declares that this is only the beginning. In a video published earlier this month, Waziri and world-renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass show a few shots of the colourful, newly unearthed discoveries.