Archaeologists uncover 17 mummies in Egyptian necropolis

Egypt has unearthed an ancient burial site replete with at least 17 mummies, most fully intact, the latest in a string of discoveries that the country's antiquities.

The site also contained limestone and clay sarcophagi, animal coffins, and papyrus inscribed with Demotic script.

The discovery was made near the Nile Valley city of Minya, in the village of Tuna al-Gabal. The area hosts a large necropolis for thousands of mummified ibis and baboon birds as well as other animals. It also includes tombs and a funerary building.

The burial chamber was first detected last year by a team of Cairo University students using radar.

The mummies have not yet been dated but are believed to date to Egypt's Greco-Roman period, a roughly 600-year span that followed the country's conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 BC, according to Mohamed Hamza, a Cairo University archaeology dean in charge of the excavations.

“It’s the first human necropolis to be found here in Tuna al-Gabal,” antiquities minister Khaled al-Anani told reporters at the site, 220 kilometres south of Cairo. The mummies were elaborately preserved, therefore likely belong to officials and priests, he said.

The necropolis, which is eight metres below ground level, dates back to the late period of ancient Egypt and the Greco-Roman period, the minister noted.

Archaeologists have excavated a slew of relics in recent months that include a nobleman's tomb from more than 3,000 years ago, 12 cemeteries that date back about 3,500 years, and a giant colossus believed to depict King Psammetich I, who ruled from 664 to 610 BC.

Egypt is hoping recent discoveries will brighten its image abroad and revive interest among travellers who, since the country’s 2011 political uprising, have dwindled in numbers.