An Egyptian team, including head worker Mustafa Abdo, uncovered this finely decorated tomb of a priest.
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Untouched 4,400-year-old tomb discovered at Saqqara, Egypt
The stunning tomb displays clues to the life of a royal official, with more discoveries likely.
During Egypt’s pyramid age, a well-connected man named Wahtye died and was laid to rest in the vast royal cemetery that now occupies the desert west of modern Cairo. His colorfully decorated tomb, apparently intact, has recently come to light some 16 feet (five meters) beneath the sand at the archaeological site known as Saqqara. (Learn more about Egypt's great pyramids.)
This burial is “one of a kind in the last decades,” said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, at a press conference that announced the discovery earlier today. "The color is almost intact even though the tomb is almost 4,400 years old."
The tomb owner served King Neferirkare, who ruled during the Old Kingdom’s fifth dynasty.
