Archeologists Uncover 17 Mummies in Central Egypt

Cairo: Egypt has unearthed an ancient burial site, replete with at least 17 mostly intact mummies. It is the latest 
in a string of discoveries, that the country’s antiquities minister described as a helping hand for its struggling tourism sector. The necropolis, uncovered eight meters below ground in Minya, a province about 250km south of Cairo, contained limestone and clay sarcophagi, animal coffins and papyrus inscribed with Demotic script. The mummies have not yet been dated, but are believed to be from Egypt’s Greco-Roman period, a roughly 600-year span that followed the country’s conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, according to Mohamed Hamza, a Cairo University archaeology dean in charge of the excavations. Egypt is hoping, recent discoveries will brighten its image, abroad and revive interest among travellers that once flocked to its iconic pharaonic temples and pyramids, but have shunned the country since its 2011 political uprising.