Egypt calls Luxor coffins 'greatest discovery of century'
The 30 uniquely well preserved coffins recently found in Egypt's southern city of Luxor are a godsend to Egyptian tourism.
Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Khaled el-Anani called the discovery of 30 finely painted wooden coffins in the southern city of Luxor “the greatest discovery in the nation’s modern history.”
The 30 coffins, which contained the mummies of men, women and children, were discovered in the area of Al-Assassif, a necropolis on the Nile's west bank. Unlike most of the coffins discovered in the last few years, they were unopened.
At a news conference in Luxor on Oct. 19, Anani said that all tombs date to the 22th Egyptian dynasty, which ruled between 1070 and 712 BCE.
The minister said that a high priest is believed to have collected the coffins in a later Pharaonic period and placed them in a more secure location in Assassif to protect them from theft.
