Archaeologists Unearth Oldest Known Gold-Covered Mummy In Egypt

According to Hawass, archaeologists have unearthed the oldest known gold-covered mummy in Egypt at the Tombs of Saqqara in Memphis.

Archaeologists have made a number of fresh discoveries in the Tombs of Saqqara in Memphis, the ancient Egyptian capital, including a mummy that is 4,300 years old and wrapped in gold leaf.

The mummy, which contained the remains of a man named Hekashepes, was discovered at the bottom of a 33-foot shaft in a sealed stone sarcophagus.

“I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: a beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,” says Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s famous (and controversial) former antiquities minister, to the Associated Press Mohamed Wagdy.

The discovery is not the oldest known Egyptian mummy, despite several news sites' claims to the contrary. Instead, it is "the oldest complete mummy covered in gold," according to Hawass, who explains this to Live Science's Owen Jarus.

Hawass explains to CNN's Amara...

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