Live-streamed sarcophagus opening reveals the ancient remains of Egyptian high priest

A sarcophagus containing an Egyptian high priest has been opened on live TV and archaeologists are excited about what was inside.

Egypt has unveiled the 2500-year-old mummy of a high priest at an ancient cemetery south of Cairo.

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and an Egyptian team opened three sealed sarcophagi from the 26th Dynasty.

One contained the well-preserved mummy of a powerful priest, wrapped in linen and decorated with a golden figure depicting Isis, an ancient Egyptian goddess.

The team also opened two other sarcophagi, one containing a female mummy decorated with blue beads and another with a father in a family tomb. The finds were revealed live on air on the Discovery Channel on Sunday.

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and an Egyptian team opened three sealed sarcophagi from the 26th Dynasty. Picture: YouTube

At the burial site in Minya province, the team also found a rare wax head. “I never discovered in the late period anything like this,” Mr Hawass said.

Egyptian archaeologists discovered the site a year and a half ago and the excavation is continuing.

“I really believe that this site needs excavation maybe for the coming 50 years,” Mr Hawass told Reuters a day before the sarcophagi were opened. He expects more tombs to be found there.

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The mummy, thought to be a priest, had a solid gold cross on his chest. Picture: YouTube

In 1927, a huge limestone sarcophagus was found in the area and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the site was then forgotten, Mr Hawass said. But two years ago an unauthorised digger was found at the site and stopped, he said. That’s what alerted archaeologists and excavation began.

Restorers work on a sarcophagus part of the Tutankhamun collection at the restoration lab of the newly-built Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza. Picture: AFP