CAIRO – 8 April 2019: A 2,500-year-old mummy of a high priest was unveiled at an ancient cemetery south of Cairo.

Famed Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass accompanied by a team of archaeologists opened three sealed sarcophagi from the 26th Dynasty at the burial site in Minya governorate. The finds were shown live on air on the Discovery Channel on April 7.

The first sarcophagus contained the well-preserved mummy of a powerful priest, wrapped in linen and decorated with a golden figure depicting the ancient Egyptian goddess Isis.

The second sarcophagus contained a female mummy decorated with blue beads and another with a father in a family tomb. Archaeologists also found a rare wax head. Hawass announced that he has never uncovered anything like this lately.

Egyptian archaeologists discovered the site a year and a half ago and the excavation is ongoing.
"I really believe that this site needs excavation maybe for the coming 50 years," Hawass told Reuters a day before the sarcophagi were opened. He expects more tombs to be found there.

In 1927, a huge limestone sarcophagus was found in the area and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the site was then forgotten, Hawass said. But two years ago an unauthorized digger was found at the site and stopped, he said. That's what alerted archaeologists and excavation began.