Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,300-year-old tomb which had a 7-metre-high pyramid at its entrance in an ancient cemetery in Egypt. The tomb, found at the site of Abydos, contained disarticulated skeletal remains from three to four men, 10 to 12 women and at least two children.
Within one of its vaulted burial chambers, archaeologists found a finely crafted sandstone sarcophagus which was painted red. There is no mummy in the sarcophagus, and the tomb was ransacked at least twice in antiquity, researchers said.
The chambers uncovered would have originally resided beneath the surface, leaving only the steep-sided pyramid visible. “Originally, all you probably would have seen would have been the pyramid and maybe a little wall around the structure just to enclose everything,” said Kevin Cahail, a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania, who led excavations at the tomb.