Egypt has unveiled the 2,500-year-old mummy of a high priest at an ancient cemetery south of Cairo.
Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and an Egyptian team opened three sealed sarcophagi from the 26th Dynasty early on Monday, April 8.
One contained the well-preserved mummy of a powerful priest, wrapped in linen and decorated with a golden figure depicting Isis, an ancient Egyptian goddess.
The team also opened two other sarcophagi, one containing a female mummy decorated with blue beads and another with a father in a family tomb. The finds were revealed live on air on the Discovery Channel.
At the burial site in Minya province, the team also found a rare wax head.
Egyptian archaeologists discovered the site a year and a half ago and the excavation is continuing.
Hawass told Reuters before the sarcophagi were opened that he expects more tombs to be found there.
In 1927, a huge limestone sarcophagus was found in the area and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the site was then forgotten, Hawass said.
But two years ago an unauthorised digger was found at the site and stopped, he said. That’s what alerted archaeologists and excavation began.
By Seham Eloraby and Aiden Nulty
