Archaeologists have discovered an unusual well of at least 13 colored wooden coffins sealed and hidden about 2,500 years ago in the Saqqara desert cemetery in the Egyptian governorate of Giza.

News agencies stated that the discovered coffins are very distinctive among the thousands of coffins buried in the ancient cemetery complex, as they remained intact, tightly closed and stacked on top of each other hundreds of years after the death of their owners and their bodies were placed in them.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the coffins were found in a well buried 11 meters underground, stacked on top of each other, and in good condition, even some of the colors painted on the wood are still intact, and a preliminary analysis found that the coffins may have been sealed since burial. .

Inside the burial site, other artifacts were also found, and Minister Khaled Al-Anani said that it is likely that there are more coffins in the well that have yet to be discovered.

It is believed that Saqqara served as a cemetery for Memphis, which was once the capital of ancient Egypt for 3 thousand years, and the Egyptians buried their dead there, and as such it became a site of great archaeological importance.

At the end of last year, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of a huge collection of 75 statues of cats of various sizes and shapes made of wood and bronze, and 25 wooden boxes with covers decorated with hieroglyphic writings inside of mummies of huge cats in the ancient Saqqara area west of Greater Cairo.

Funerary monuments

And in its report on the latest archaeological discovery, Science Alert suggested that the burials discovered were most likely belonging to middle-class or working-class people.

The site report added that even the rich tombs were not immune to external influences. For thousands of years, many ancient Egyptian tombs were looted, so finding a cache of coffins that had not been discovered or looted before and had not been opened throughout that time means the possibility of the existence of Untouched funeral artifacts and objects inside.

Given that the coffins are made of wood and buried in a dry place, the probability of them retaining any foreign liquid inside is very low, and an ancient archaeological coffin found in Alexandria earlier has sparked a long debate, because it contained a liquid with a sickening odor that was most likely due to the leakage of sewage water into it. .

The discovered coffins are useful in knowing how important the burials were to their ancient society, and this discovery is likely to add further understanding to ancient Egyptian funerary customs.

The names and identities of the people buried in the coffins have not yet been discovered, but with the continuing excavation work at the site, this information is expected to be found soon, in addition to the total number of coffins buried in the discovered well.