Since the tourists, especially from Russia, have stopped coming to Egypt, first because of Corona, now because of the war in Ukraine, the spectacular finds in the country on the Nile seem to be piling up.

But the excavation site in Saqqara at the foot of the famous step pyramid of the ancient Egyptian king Djoser is also particularly productive.

For the fifth time since 2018, dozens of artifacts were presented on Monday, all from much more recent times and not from Djoser, who was a ruler of the third dynasty and reigned around 2700 BC.

Peter Philipp Schmitt

Editor in the department "Germany and the World".

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The 250 wooden sarcophagi that have now been discovered in the necropolis near Cairo are around 2,500 years old and date from the late period of ancient Egypt, when the country was under Persian rule.

However, they are in surprisingly good condition, even the colors of the painting still look fresh, as archaeologists from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Monday.

And most of the coffins are still sealed, so they still contain the mummies of the respective deceased.

Impressive wooden statues

Around 150 bronze statues depicting Egyptian deities such as Anubis, Osiris, Nefertem, Isis and Hathor were also uncovered, as well as a nine-meter-long papyrus scroll containing excerpts from the so-called Book of the Dead as well as curses and sayings intended to protect against grave robbers .

The script is now to be examined more closely and translated in the laboratory of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The excavator Mohamed Al Saidi was particularly taken with two wooden statues with gold-colored faces kneeling on one of the coffins.

They represent Isis and Neftis and should be head and foot in mourning for the dead, Mohamed Al Saidi told CBS News correspondent Ahmed Shawkat on Monday.

The papyrus scroll was also in the coffin.

So far, more than 450 sarcophagi have been discovered in the necropolis of Saqqara on the west bank of the Nile, but a large part of the excavation site has not yet been explored.

The archaeologists will certainly soon uncover more sarcophagi, which will then also be taken to the newly built Egyptian Museum, which is scheduled to open this year as a tourist magnet in Cairo.