The 4,300-year-old mummy was a rich, important 35-year-old man called Djed Sepsh, archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former antiquities minister, told CNN Friday.
“It is the oldest mummy, complete and covered in gold, ever found in Egypt,” he said, adding that it was “the most amazing discovery.”
Hawass said he and a team of 10 assistants discovered the mummified man 20 meters (66 feet) underground at the Gisr el-Mudir enclosure, in the shadow of the ancient Step Pyramid of Djoser in the village of Saqqara.
Archeologist Zahi Hawass and 10 assistants found the 4,300-year-old mummy. Credit: Omar Zoheiry/picture alliance/Getty Images
The mummy was in a 25-tonne stone coffin — with the lid alone weighing five tonnes — in one of the shafts the team entered, according to Hawass.
He said when the team opened the lid, they found the “oldest, most beautiful mummy covered in…
