Four ancient tombs containing well-preserved mummies and ornate painted coffins have been unearthed in El Fayoum, an oasis about 80 kilometers southwest of Cairo. One female mummy was found wearing a gilded mask, a rare treasure at the site known as the necropolis of Deir el-Banat.

"An important point is that these mummies are almost untouched," said Galina A. Belova, an Egyptologist who led the excavation. In a separate tomb, the excavators discovered the first completely intact mummy ever found at the necropolis. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said some of the newly discovered remains are the best yet found from the Ptolemaic era.

"One mummy was beautifully gilded, and another is in very good condition," said Hawass. "They show some of the best examples of mummies from this period." Archaeologists also found a strange burial on the outskirts of the site containing the non-mummified remains of a child and a group of mummified dogs, a grave unlike any other yet found in Egypt.