Egyptian archaeologists have discovered two human and animal embalming workshops, as well as two tombs, at the Saqqara Necropolis south of Cairo, the government said Saturday.
Located in the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, the vast burial site is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to more than a dozen pyramids, animal tombs and ancient Coptic Christian monasteries.
Mostafa Waziri, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters that the embalming workshops, where people and animals were mummified, “dated back to the 30th dynasty” which reigned about 2,400 years ago.
The researchers “found several rooms with stone beds where the deceased lay for mummification”, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said.
Each bed ends in trenches to facilitate the mummification process, with a collection of clay pots nearby to place entrails and organs, as well as a collection of instruments and ritual vessels.
Early studies of a workshop suggest that it was used for the “mummification of sacred animals”.
The discovery also includes the tombs of two priests dating back to the 24th and 14th centuries BC, respectively.
The first belongs to Ne Hesut Ba, who served in the Fifth Dynasty as the chief scribe and priest of the Gods Horus and Maat.
The walls of the tomb are decorated with pictures of “daily life, agriculture and hunting scenes”, said Mohamed Youssef, director of the Saqqara archaeological site.
The second tomb, that of a priest named Men Kheber, is carved into the rock and contains portraits of the deceased himself on the walls of the tomb, as well as a 1-meter-tall (3-foot) alabaster statue, Youssef told reporters.
Egypt has revealed a series of important archaeological discoveries in recent years.
Critics say the frenzy over the excavations is mainly about the finds being put on display to get media attention rather than hard academic research.
The discoveries are an important part of Egypt’s attempt to revive its vital tourism industry amid a severe economic crisis.
The government recently launched a strategy “aimed at a rapid increase in inbound tourism” at a rate of 25 to 30 percent a year, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Ahmed Issa said in site on Saturday.
Egypt aims to get 30 million tourists annually by 2028, up from 13 million before the COVID pandemic.
The most important attribute of the government’s strategy is the long-delayed inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum at the foot of the Pyramids of Giza.
