Lost Tomb Found in Egypt

Workers dig at an excavation site in front of the Giza pyramids on January 11, 2010. A team of Egyptian archeologists has rediscovered the ancient tomb belonging to Ptahmes, the mayor of Memphis. (Victoria Hazou/Getty Images)

A team of Egyptian archeologists has rediscovered the ancient tomb belonging to Ptahmes, the mayor of Memphis, the ancient Egyptian capital.

Ptahmes lived around 1200 B.C. and served as royal scribe and arms chief under the Pharaoh Seti I and his son, one Egypt’s best known rulers, Rameses II.

The tomb is located near a pyramid in Saqqara ‘city of the dead,’ an ancient cemetery near Cairo.

Secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Dr. Zahi Hawass, explained in a press release on his website “that the tomb is 70 meters (230 feet) long and composed of a number of corridors and chapels.”

Archeologist also found, several carved stelae (battle victory markers), pieces of statue of Ptahmes and his wife or daughter, clay vessels, figurines, amulets, and vivid murals depicting Ptahmes’s family hunting and fishing according to the release.

The tomb was previously unearthed by foreign archeologists in the late 1800s. Some of the artifacts were removed and put on display in museums around the world, but the location of the tomb had been lost until now, reported the Associated Press.