According to CNN, this is the tomb of a royal priest dating back to the 7th century BC, which is believed to correspond to the 5th dynasty of the Old Kingdom. The tomb is quite unusual because the facade and door are still intact, meaning the objects inside may have been untouched. Mr. Khaled El-Enany, Egypt's Minister of Antiquities, said that the items excavated from the tomb alone could fill a museum.
The finds included 25 wooden sarcophagi with hieroglyphs on the outside and mummified cats inside. Among the dozens of cat mummies were 100 gilded wooden cat statues and a bronze statue of the cat goddess Bastet.
Cat statue found in ancient tomb
Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced that one of the most striking discoveries was the mummified remains of five big cats. After putting them through an MRI machine, archaeologists determined that two of them were lion cubs. Waziri said that further research would be conducted to learn more about the two lions.
Lion mummies found in royal priest's tomb
Cats were often worshiped by the ancient Egyptians and mummified and buried with their owners. However, the discovery of a lion mummy is very rare.
Previously, French Egyptologist Alain Zivie also discovered the mummy of a male lion near the site where the tomb was discovered, Mr. El-Enany said, adding that lions had a particularly sacred role in ancient Egyptian life.
Other notable discoveries at the ancient tomb were two mummified scarab beetles contained in a rectangular marble sarcophagus, the lid decorated with three black-painted scarab beetles, as well as a crocodile statue with the mummified remains of a crocodile inside.
Dozens of statues of ancient Egyptian gods and cobra mummies were also found in this excavation, including 73 bronze statues of the god Osiris.
The excavation site for this tomb is located at the Saqqara necropolis, near the Giza pyramid area, south of the Egyptian capital Cairo. The tomb was discovered and excavation began last year.
Recently, the Egyptian government has continuously announced remarkable archaeological discoveries to revive tourism after the number of international visitors declined due to the prolonged political instability over the past decade.
