Ancient tomb discovered in Egypt dating back 4,500 years

Cemetery near pyramids houses burial shafts of top officials

An Egyptian archaeologist works on sarcophagi at the newly discovered burial site dating back to around 2400BC (Reuters)

Archaeologists have uncovered part of a cemetery thousands of years old near Egypt’s famed pyramids on the Giza plateau near Cairo.

The cemetery houses burial shafts and tombs of top officials.

The most significant artefact uncovered was a limestone statue of the tomb’s owner, his wife and his son dating back to the fifth dynasty (2465-2323 BC), officials said.

Ashraf Mohi, head of the archaeological site, said it was known that the cemetery had been reused extensively in the Late Period (664-332 BC), as archaeologists found painted and decorated wooden anthropoid coffins, and wooden and clay funerary masks from that period.

Egypt has touted a series of archaeological finds recently, hoping such discoveries will spur tourism, which suffered a major setback during the unrest that followed the 2011 uprising.

Secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Mostafa Waziri, said the tomb belonged to two men.