It has lain within a burial chamber, undisturbed, for thousands of years. Now a remarkable Egyptian sarcophagus has emerged from deep beneath the sands near Cairo, to the excitement of archaeologists, who describe it as a hugely significant “dream discovery”.

The giant granite sarcophagus is covered in inscriptions dedicated to Ptah-em-wia, who headed the treasury of King Ramses II, Egypt’s mightiest pharaoh.

Ola El Aguizy, emeritus professor of the faculty of archaeology at Cairo University, discovered it in Saqqara, an ancient necropolis about 20 miles south of Cairo. Last year, El Aguizy, who heads the archaeological mission at the site, uncovered Ptah-em-wia’s surface-level tomb. Now she has found his underground burial chamber with the sarcophagus, which could reveal more about those who ruled Egypt after Tutankhamun.

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At the centre of the tomb’s courtyard, El Aguizy’s team spotted the top of a vertical shaft, which suggested a passage to a burial chamber. But that shaft proved so deep, at 8 metres, that it took a week just to remove all the sand, using a bucket attached to a hand-operated rope winch. El Aguizy then squeezed herself into that bucket and made a dangerous, slow descent down the shaft. At the bottom, she was astonished to find the sarcophagus.

Read more: yahoo