Hawass said the finds date from the fifth and sixth dynasties, which correspond to the 25th to the 22nd centuries B.C. Hawass said it was 'covered in layers of gold,' and concealed within a large limestone sarcophagus that had been sealed for 4,300 years, 'just as the ancient Egyptians left it.' The millennia-old tombs were discovered in Egypt's Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo Image: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/REUTERS What else did archaeologists find?Īrchaeologists also said they had discovered four tombs at the vast burial site. The mummy is believed to have belonged to a man named Hekashepes.
'This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date,' Zahi Hawass, a former antiquities minister, said in a statement. Egypt on Thursday announced a series of new archaeological discoveries found in the Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo, including a mummy said to be 4,300 years old.
