Found a hiding place with 30 pharaonic sarcophagi sealed and decorated in detail

• Egypt: an 18-door pharaonic tomb
• Discovery: Spanish Egyptologists find the mummy of a priest of the god Amón-Ra

Egypt has presented in society on Saturday some ambassadors arrived from three thousand years ago. A local mission has unearthed a "cachette" with 30 colorful coffins in perfect condition and with a string of offerings, texts and deities drawn on its wood. An exceptional treasure, sealed for millennia and with its mummies still housed inside, which records minutes of the priests who worshiped Ammon in the arid Thebes, the current Luxor.

"It is a pleasure to officially announce the discovery of a new 'cachette' of mummies and coffins. There are 30 sarcophagi. 23 men, 5 women and 2 children. They are all exceptionally painted and preserved, " proclaimed the Egyptian Antiquities Minister, Jaled the Anani, in a press conference marked by the usual chaos on the esplanade that presides over the Hatshepsut temple (1478-1458 BC), on the western shore of present-day Luxor, 600 kilometers south of Cairo. The Arab country has described the discovery as the "largest and most important" of recent years.

The 'cachette', a hiding place of mummies, was located in the nearby necropolis of Asasif , during the excavation work of the expedition. "Last August I received a message telling me of the finding. The first thing that appeared was the face of one of the wooden sarcophagi," said Mustafa el Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. "We had to continue the excavation. On the first level 18 coffins were found and, when moved, another 12 appeared below."

The succession of sarcophagi belongs to priests of the XXII dynasty (around 900 BC) and presents a rich and complete decoration. "The clergy was then very powerful and almost everyone who had possibilities belonged to the immense army of priests who worked for Amón in Karnak", points to EL MUNDO Francisco Martín Valentín, co-director of the Spanish mission that has pierced the grave for a decade of the vizier Amenhotep Huy, just 300 meters from where this formidable discovery has been signed.

In 2015 the Spanish team recovered the coffin of a priest named Anj-ef-Jonsu , who was the scribe of Amón Ra's offerings at the Karnak temple. His fine sarcophagus looks like a tracing of those found now. "They were all from a factory in Karnak, where coffins were made like this 'prêt-à-porter'. They are all very similar, with a similar iconography and with the characteristic of the stoles that are painted in the sarcophagus, typical of characters linked to the high clergy of Amun and of Libyan origin, "Martin Valentin reels.

On the surface of the coffins, there are also the traces of those who did not have the joy of seeing their manufacture completed. Offerings and scenes of different divinities are represented on the sides, such as King Amenhotep I who was worshiped in the nearby monastery of Deir el Bahari, or fragments of the Book of the Dead. In the case of rescued females, these are Ammon singers. "They were noble women of medium-high level linked to Karnak," slips the Spanish expert.

The discovery adds a new page to the fruitful history of the "cachette" located under the sands of Luxor. To date, two hiding places of royal mummies had been unearthed, in 1881 and 1898, and that of Bab al-Jisus in 1891, where dozens of coffins of priests were extracted. "The current one is the second hiding place of priests found. There are 30 sarcophagi that have remained closed," said El Waziri. Two coffins, corresponding to a woman and a man, have been opened during the ceremony, among a crowd of cameras, shouts and applause.

Both finados have been sheltered from the ailments of time by boxes that are authentic jewels, a celebration of the artistic skills of the land of the pharaohs. "They follow a pattern. The face of the character is depicted on the cover. They usually carry a picture of the goddess Nut and representations of Osiris and the children of Horus. And a strip of inscriptions that go from under the arms to the feet in the which speaks of funeral offerings to different divinities, "explains Martín Valentín.

"On the sides of the box welcomes a representation of the goddess Hathor leaving the Tebana mountain, which is the object of worship and presentation of offerings by the deceased," adds the Spanish. "The interior of the coffin has a column with the name and title of the owner and on the sides representations of the four children of Horus and some geniuses of the monkey or jackal-shaped door books. Everything is very colorful and rich huge artistic . "

The sensational accumulation of mummies still throws some questions, starting with their origin. Were they initially individual burials? Is your joint appearance the result of a subsequent robbery or transfer? From the Ministry of Antiquities, which has provided few details, the "cachette" is "a witness to a historical period of instability, marked by the theft of graves and the construction of huge burials."

The choice of the place where they were buried - they point - is linked to their holiness as a known and revered cemetery. After its restoration, the coffins will leave their homeland to take the route downstream to the Egyptian capital. "The collection will be completely transferred to the Great Egyptian Museum ," said the minister. The center, which is built a stone's throw from the Giza pyramids, hopes to open its doors at the end of 2020.

The excavations, meanwhile, will continue in the moor in search of new finds. "The excavation will continue. We have not found any object so new campaigns should probably lead us to the discovery of canopic vessels [the vessels in which the ancient Egyptians kept the viscera of the deceased]," predicted El Waziri.

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