Archaeologists find 1000 statues in tomb in Egypt's Luxor

Archaeologists have discovered several sarcophagi and more than 1,000 various artifacts dating back to ancient Egyptian times near the country's southern city of Luxor, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani announced on Tuesday, when the World Heritage Day is being celebrated.

The contents include well-preserved wooden coffins decorated with coloured scenes, as well as wooden funerary masks and nearly 1,000 ushabti figurines carved in faience, terra-cotta and wood.

The Valley of the Kings was the main place of burial for pharoahs and noblemen for almost 500 years, until the 11th Century BC.

Archeologists were also examining a mummy wrapped in linen which was inside one of the coffins.

White, orange, green, and patterned pots were also found in the tombs.

The find near the Nile city of Luxor, is the tomb of Userhat, a judge from the New Kingdom.

After removing nearly 450 meters of debris from the open court, Waziri explained that the entrance of Userhat's tomb in addition to a further two entrances which lead to two joint tombs was discovered.

According to the description of the Ministry of Antiquities, the T-shaped tomb consists of an open court leading into a rectangular hall, a corridor and an inner chamber. "It's evident that someone with a conscience, the priests or a high-profile government official. made an opening to the chambers, and they put the coffins there", he said.

A nine-metre-deep shaft was also uncovered, connected to two rooms.

The tombs and ancient temples of Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt during its later periods and now the city of Luxor, have been a major tourist attraction. He said that the mission has discovered that the inhabitants of the tomb have died because of a disease, and that they are working to discover the type of this disease.

Tourism in Egypt has suffered in the aftermath of the mass protests that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.