On Saturday, Egypt announced via the Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Anani that a team of Egyptian archaeologists made an amazing discovery in the ancient capital city of Luxor. They discovered an ancient tomb at the Draa Abul Nagaa necropolis that is over 3,500 years old.
More details on the Luxor tomb
The pharaonic tomb was discovered in Luxor along the west bank of the Nile river in an ancient cemetery reserved for noblemen and other top officials.
It belonged to a royal goldsmith and his wife who lived during the reign of the 18th dynasty of Egypt (c. 1549-1292 BC).
El-Anani stated in the announcement that the tomb was not in great condition and had two shafts. The first shaft held a slightly damaged sandstone statues of the goldsmith, identified as Amenemhat, and his wife, Amenhotep. Between their statues is a smaller figure of one of the couple's sons, which is unusual as usually a daughter or daughter-in-law would be pictured.
The goldsmith's work was dedicated to the Egyptian god Amun, the “King of the Gods.” It also held wooden funerary masks and three mummies.
There was also a second shaft inside the tomb that had mummies and coffins from people who lived during the 21st (c.1069-945 BC) and 22nd (c.945-720 BC) dynasties of Egypt.
CNN reporters Sarah El-Sirgany and Laura Smith-Spark were the first to report on the tomb, as the network was the first media outlet to see the tomb. They were given exclusive access inside of it on the day that the Antiquities Ministry announced the discovery.
Egypt hopes discovery will spur tourism
The discovery of the Luxor tomb was announced by Egypt's Antiquities Ministry with a large amount of pageantry in the hopes of increasing the country's gradually recovering tourism industry.
The New York Times reported that El-Anani, who was giving his press conference announcing the discovery outside the tomb, said that, “We want tomorrow's newspapers to speak about Egypt and make people want to come to Egypt.”
The country's tourism industry has been wrecked in recent years due to all of the political upheaval and turmoil in the country.
The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 was shortly followed by the 2013 Egyptian coup d'etat in which the military overthrew President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Add in high profile terror attacks like the October 2015 bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 or the Palm Sunday Coptic Church attacks this past Easter and it is easy to see why the country's tourism industry has been suffering in recent years.