Archaeologists in Egypt have stumbled upon a new discovery dating to more than 2,500 years ago near Egypt's famed pyramids in an ancient necropolis south of Cairo.
The discovery included a mummification workshop and a shaft, used as a communal burial place,and found in the Saqqara cemetery part of the Memphis necropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Memphis, the first capital of ancient Egypt, and its large necropolis is home to a wide range of temples and tombs as well as the three pyramids of Giza.
The latest find, announced on Saturday at a news conference, belongs to the Saite-Persian Period which ran from 664-404 BC.
The site, which lies south of Unas pyramid, was last excavated more than 100 years ago, in 1900.
Among the artefacts discovered were a gilded silver mummy mask, fragments of mummy cartonnages, canopic cylindrical jars and marl clay and faience cups.
Many of them will be put on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is currently under construction.
It hopes such discoveries along with the inauguration of the museum at the Giza plateau will help bring in tourists.
