Egypt says ancient cemetery found at Giza famed pyramids

Egypt's Antiquities Ministry says archaeologists have uncovered part of an ancient cemetery near the country's famed pyramids on the Giza plateau just outside Cairo.

The photo provided by Ministry of Antiquities shows an uncovered part of ancient cemetery at an area by the famed pyramids at the Giza plateau just outside Cairo, Egypt, May 4, 2019. [Photo: Ministry of Antiquities via AP]

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, says Saturday the cemetery houses burial shafts and tombs of top officials and a fine limestone statue from the Old Kingdom's Fifth Dynasty (2465-2323 B.C.).

Ashraf Mohi, the head of the Giza Plateau archaeological site, says scientists know that the cemetery had been reused extensively in the Late Period (664-332 B.C.), as archeologists found painted and decorated wooden anthropoid coffins, and wooden and clay funerary masks from that period.

The photo provided by Ministry of Antiquities shows an uncovered part of ancient cemetery at an area by the famed pyramids at the Giza plateau just outside Cairo, Egypt, May 4, 2019. [Photo: Ministry of Antiquities via AP]

Egypt has touted a series of archaeological finds recently, hoping such discoveries will spur tourism, which suffered a major setback during the unrest that followed the 2011 uprising.