Millions of animal mummies found at burial site in Egypt

According to Sputnik, from August, Egyptian authorities allowed to expand research at the Saqqara burial ground, which contains not only the pyramid of Djoser but also a huge crypt.

British historian Bettany Hughes called Saqqara “the city of the dead” in Egypt and “an archaeological treasure”. According to this historian, underneath Saqqara could be up to “millions of mummies”. Some of the findings are extremely puzzling and cause great curiosity.

“The whole mummy is remarkable, but archaeologists have discovered many more things. Not only humans were mummified in the ‘city of the dead’, but also animals in extremely large numbers. million mummies of dogs, 4 million mummies of birds. In addition, there are mummies of cats, baboons, crocodiles …”, Bettany said.

Crocodile mummy

According to Sputnik, the burial site of animal mummies was discovered by archaeologist Auguste Mariette in 1850. Mariette saw the head of a sphinx emerging from the desert dunes and came to it. After following a series of tunnels, the archaeologist arrived at a large, undisturbed mausoleum.

There, Mariette found a granite coffin, weighing 90 tons. Curious about what was in the giant coffin, Mariette and her team blew up the lid of the coffin with dynamite in 1851. They discovered that inside was not the mummy of a pharaoh but a mummy of a large bull.

The bull’s mummy was found in a 90-ton stone coffin

“Archaeologists believe that it was the ancient Egyptians who built these large stone coffins for bulls, which they worshiped as gods,” explains Bettany.

In addition to serving research, the “city of the dead” is also a popular tourist destination in Egypt. In early August, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the Ministry of Construction signed a protocol to preserve cultural and archaeological heritage and develop tourism services in the Saqqara archaeological area.