Tombs of high priests of the gods Thoth and Horus have been discovered in the region of Minya, Egypt.
Photo taken on January 30, 2020 shows tombs containing sarcophagi around 3,000 years old, discovered in Al Ghoreifa, Minya, 300 km south of Cairo.
Tombs of high priests, around 3,000 years old and containing stone and wooden sarcophagi, have been discovered south of Cairo, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on Thursday January 30, 2020. Sixteen tombs, containing a total of twenty sarcophagi, some of which are engraved with hieroglyphics, were unearthed by an Egyptian archaeological mission at the Al Ghoreifa site in the Minya region, 300 km south of Cairo, he said. .
An archaeologist inspects one of the tombs of high priests containing sarcophagi around 3,000 years old, discovered in Al Ghoreifa, Minya, 300 km south of Cairo. © Mohamed El-Shahed / AFP
10,000 blue and green earthenware figurines
They house the remains of several high priests of the god Thoth, with the body of a man and the head of an ibis, as well as those of important dignitaries from Upper Egypt. And they are almost three millennia old.
One of the stone sarcophagi is dedicated to the pharaonic god Horus, with the head of a falcon, son of Isis and Osiris. Engraved in the stone itself, a representation of the goddess Nut, considered the mother of all the stars, who spreads her wings over the sarcophagus.
The archaeologists also discovered 10,000 blue and green earthenware figurines, 700 beetle-shaped amulets, some of which were made of pure gold, and an amulet representing a winged cobra.
Skull and human remains from the tombs of high priests at Al Ghoreifa, Minya, Egypt. © Mohamed El-Shahed / AFP
Intended to accommodate the viscera of the deceased, canopic jars were also exhumed. In recent years, the Egyptian authorities have sought to promote archaeological finds to revive tourism in the country.