Discovery Channel to open sarcophagus live from Egypt in television first

'We know that there are a lot of mummies that are down there'

Host Josh Gates posing in front of the Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt (Discovery Channel)

Discovery Channel is set to broadcast a live episode that will see hosts open an ancient sarcophagus live from Egypt for the first time on television.

The station will air two-hour special Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live on Sunday from a “less-visited part of the country” where, according to Here & Now, ”new exciting finds are coming to light.”

When asked what he thinks he’ll find upon opening the stone coffin, host Josh Gates said: ”[The] kind of the beauty of this is, I don’t know and I think that’s the fun of it.”

He continued: “We know that there are a lot of mummies that are down there.”

Gates added that the burial site they’ll be broadcasting from is the final resting place of some of Egypt’s higher-class citizens and expects to find physical remains.

The channel will be filming the episode at a site overseen by head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri.