Mummies of children among Egypt’s biggest ancient coffin find in 100 years

Thirty distinctive ancient coffins with mummies inside were unveiled today in Egypt in the biggest find of its kind in more than a century.

Archaeologists discovered the coloured wooden coffins “for men, women and children” in Luxor in the south of the country.

“It is the first large human coffin cache ever discovered since the end of the 19th century,” the Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany said today.

The intricately carved and painted coffins, said to be 3,000 years old, were closed with mummies inside and were in “a good condition of preservation, colours and complete inscriptions,” a statement read.

The cache was found at the Al-Asasif cemetery, on the west bank of the River Nile.

Mostafa Waziri, the excavation team leader, said the coffins were for male and female priests and children.

He dated them back to the 10th century BC under the rule of the 22nd Pharaonic dynasty.

The coffins will undergo restoration before being moved to a showroom at the Grand Egyptian Museum, due to open next year next to the Giza pyramids, the ministry said.

The discovery is the latest in a series of major finds of ancient relics that Egypt hopes will revive its tourism sector, which has been badly hit by political instability since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Earlier this month, Egypt unveiled two archaeological discoveries in Luxor including an industrial zone at the city’s West Valley, also known as the Valley of the Monkeys.

And in May, archaeologists discovered a double tomb dating back to the time of the Pharaohs at the Pyramids of Giza.

The archaeological mission removed 450 cubic metres of sands to uncover the 4,500-year-old tombs amid the ancient cemetery containing well-preserved burial shafts.

Beneath the sands near the pyramids on the outskirts of capital Cairo, a striking Old Kingdom burial site was revealed to contain the remains of a priest and a noble, along with a fine limestone statute.