3,300-Year-Old Egyptian Tomb Reveals Elaborate

3,300-Year-Old Egyptian Tomb Reveals Elaborate Burial Rites Of Ancient Elite
Ancient Egypt was known as the Gift of the Nile. For modern Egyptologists, the real gifts lie just beneath the desert surface. Archaeologists have recently uncovered an elaborate 3,300-year-old tomb that once boasted a 23-foot pyramid at its entrance. The tomb was laden with the skeletal remains of at least 15 people and housed a sandstone sarcophagus on which hieroglyphics were inscribed.



According to Live Science, the tomb was discovered at an ancient cemetery in Abydos, one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt located about 11 kilometers, or seven miles, west of the Nile. The tomb’s many vaulted chambers would have been built below the surface, with only the pyramid visible at ground level.

“Originally, all you probably would have seen was the pyramid and maybe a little wall around the structure just to enclose everything,” Kevin Cahail, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania and the tomb’s lead excavator, told Live Science. “[The pyramid] probably would have had a small mortuary chapel inside of it that may have held a statue or a stela giving the names and titles of the individuals buried underneath.”

The only part of the pyramid that remains today is the thick walls of the tomb’s entrance that would have served as the base of the pyramid.

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