Imagine digging into the golden sands of Egypt, expecting to find remnants of old pottery or bones but instead you discover 13 untouched, sealed coffins. In the year 2020, archaeologists came across 13 perfectly preserved wooden coffins, untouched and stacked on top of each other in a deep tomb for over 2,500 years. However this wasn’t just a discovery; it was a time capsule—and a doorway to ancient secrets.
Saqqara which is 19 miles south of Cairo, Egypt was known to be the burial site of Egyptian royalty. Apart from serving as a burial ground, this burial complex also contains ancient monuments such as the Step Pyramid of Djoser and other pyramids. There have been multiple coffins that have been discovered and dug up over the years. However, the coffins that have been found were never in pristine condition like the coffins that they just found in 2020. The coffins found in 2020 were in excellent condition considering they were buried more than 2,500 years ago. This discovery shocked most because it is almost rare to come across coffins that are completely intact with its original colouration of detailed hieroglyphs and designs.
Yet what interests archaeologists even more is to find out who the people were that were buried and why their coffins were buried on top of each other. Early analysis suggested that the burials dated back to the Late Period of Ancient Egypt (roughly 664–332 BCE), a time when Egypt was facing internal strife and increasing influence from outside powers, such as the Persians and later the Greeks. Despite the turbulent era, the inscriptions on the coffins included names which offered clues to the identities of the deceased and the craftsmanship of these coffins indicated that the individuals were likely high-status officials or priests.
This find at Saqqara is a reminder that the sands of Egypt still hold countless secrets. In a world increasingly mapped, scanned, and digitized, there remain places where history sleeps just below the surface, waiting for the right moment to rise again. As excavations continue, and more coffins are revealed, Saqqara is becoming not just a necropolis—but a message from the past.
