Maraaz 
3,500-year-old exploration in Egypt’s Saqqara necropolis: Queen Naert’s funeral temple was found. Egypt announced that more than 50 new sarcophagi, including the funeral temple of Queen Naert, have been unearthed in the Saqqara necropolis in southern Cairo. Archaeologists said the discovery will shed light on the “New Kingdom” period between 1550 and 1069 BC.
Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that more than 50 sarcophagi were unearthed in the “great discovery” by a team of archaeologists led by Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, as well as the funeral temple of Queen Naert.
It has been announced that the wooden sarcophagi dating to the New Kingdom period (1550-1069 BC), which ruled between the 16th and 11th centuries BC, were found in 52 burial wells with a depth of 10 to 12 meters.
ON UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE LIST
Saqqara, which hosts dozens of pyramids and ancient monasteries, is on the UNESCO World Heritage List. More than 100 intact sarcophagi were discovered in November in the necropolis in Memphis, the ancient Egyptian capital.
Hawass said that the latest discovery would shed new light on Saqqara’s history during the New Kingdom period. The find was made near the pyramid where King Teti, the first pharaoh of the sixth dynasty of the era, was buried. Hawass said in the discovery that besides the funeral temple of King Teti’s wife, Queen Naert, there were also three brick warehouses at the archaeological site.
More than 50 sarcophagi found
However, Hawass stated that the sealed wooden coffins that emerged alongside the ancient god statues date back more than 2,500 years. The sarcophagi are thought to belong to the late period and senior officials of ancient Egypt’s Ptolemaic period.
EGYPT IS PREPARING TO OPEN A NEW MUSEUM
Egypt, on the other hand, hopes that recent archaeological discoveries can spur tourism that has stalled due to a number of factors, from the domestic uprisings in 2011 to the new type of corona virus pandemic. In Egypt, the government plans to open a new museum (Great Egyptian Museum) on the Giza plateau later this year, after several delays.
