Three 3,500-year-old painted wooden coffins discovered in the Egyptian city of Luxor

Three 3,500-year-old painted wooden coffins were found from the ancient city of Luxor, Egypt, by a team of French archaeologists in their latest archaeological discoveries. The coffins were excavated from the necropolis of al-Asasif, on the west bank of the Nile. The coffins remained in good condition and bear colourful decorations and hieroglyphics. Out of the three, one was feathered style, dating back to the 17th dynasty and the second was from the 18th dynasty. 

Three 3,500 years-old painted wooden coffins discovered in Egypt

According to the Egyptian officials, one of the coffins belongs to a woman, Ti Abo. It measures 195 cm (6 feet and 5 inches) in length and it features colourful artwork along with hieroglyphic inscriptions. The second coffin belongs to a woman named Rau which measures 190 cm in length and is painted yellow with inscriptions on white background. The third coffin is 180 cm long with white and brown paintings. It was covered in a layer of gypsum. 

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In another discovery, Egypt archaeologists made Tutankhamun discovery in the Valley of the Kings. An ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Tutankhamun, known as “the boy king” was the last of his royal family to rule at the end of the 19th dynasty. Recently, around 30, 3000-year-old coffins containing mummies of priests, priestesses and children were discovered in Luxor. The coffins were buried in the 10th century BC under the rule of the 22nd Pharaonic dynasty. The archaeologists said that it was the first large human coffin cache ever discovered since the 1800s. 

The coffins will undergo a restoration process and will then be moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum next to the Giza pyramids, which will open in 2020. Luxor is a popular city and tourist destination in Upper (Southern) Egypt. It is known for its ancient Egyptian sites. Luxor was originally called as ‘Thebes’. It is now also known as the ‘World’s greatest open-air museum’. In recent months, Egypt has announced many discoveries in the wake of struggling to rebuild the tourism industry. After the violent uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and the 2013 military coup against the Islamist government, the tourism sector has suffered greatly.

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