- CAIRO (Reuters) -Archaeologists
have found the world's oldest intact sarcophagus near the pyramids of Giza,
and it could contain a mummy some 4,500 years old, Egypt's top antiquities
official said on Monday.
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- The limestone sarcophagus, two metres (yards) long and
one metre wide, was unearthed about two km (1.2 miles) southeast of the
Sphinx on the Giza plateau, said Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council
of Antiquities.
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- It belonged to an overseer of workers at the pyramids
named Neni Sout Wizart, who lived in the fourth dynasty, he said.
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- "This is the oldest intact sarcophagus ever found.
It dates back 4,500 years...to the rein of Khufu (Cheops), the builder
of the great pyramid," Hawass said.
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- Over 120 workers' tombs have been discovered around the
three Giza pyramids of Cheops, Chefren and Mycerinus, but none with an
unbroken and sealed sarcophagus, he said.
-
- If the mummy is still inside, it will be the first time
archaeologists have found the embalmed body of a pharaonic worker in this
area, Hawass said.
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- The sarcophagus was discovered at the bottom of one of
four burial wells, all part of Wizart's tomb.
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- "We're not expecting to find gold or treasures.
We are expecting maybe to find a mummy, and this could be the first mummy
to be discovered inside the tombs of the pyramid builders," he said.
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