Archaeologists may have found Egypt's oldest mummy

Archeologists have uncovered what may be the oldest mummy ever found in Egypt.

The 4,300-year-old mummy was a rich, important 35-year-old man called Djed Sepsh, archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former antiquities minister, told CNN on January 27.

"It is the oldest mummy, complete and covered in gold, ever found in Egypt," he said, adding that it was "the most amazing discovery."

Hawass said he and a team of 10 assistants discovered the mummified man 20 meters (66 feet) underground at the Gisr el-Mudir enclosure, in the shadow of the ancient Step Pyramid of Djoser in the village of Saqqara.

The mummy was in a 25-tonne stone coffin -- with the lid alone weighing five tonnes -- in one of the shafts the team entered, according to Hawass.

He said when the team opened the lid, they found the "oldest, most beautiful mummy covered in layers of gold, with a band on the head and a bracelet on the chest, which indicates this was a rich man."

Among the many other Old Kingdom artifacts discovered were two tombs, Hawass said, one of which dated back to the reign of King Unas during the Fifth Dynasty, between 2494 and 2487 BC.

Saqqara, a vast necropolis about 32 kilometers (20 miles) south of Cairo, has been the site of many astonishing discoveries, including the funeral temple of Queen Nearit -- wife of King Teti, the first king of the sixth dynasty of the Old Kingdom -- in 2021.

In the same year, archeologists discovered the tomb of the chief treasurer to King Ramses II, who ruled Egypt between 1279 to 1213 BC, at the site. A large trove of ancient bronze statues and sarcophagi was also unearthed there in May last year.