ABC News November 26, 2018

13th century priest's tomb discovered in Egypt's Luxor

WATCH: 13th century priest's tomb discovered in Egypt's Luxor

A 13th century tomb belonging to a priest and his wife was found in Luxor, Egypt, after five months of excavation work, Egypt's ministry of antiquities said Saturday.

The tomb — colored with scenes depicting the owner with his family and found on the Nile River's West Bank — belonged to Thaw-Irkhet-If, the overseer of the mummification shrine at the ancient Egyptian Mut temple, also in Luxor, according to the ministry.

“Inside the tomb are colored scenes," Khaled el-Anani said during a press conference Saturday to announce the discovery. "What remains of them are in exceptional condition."

Khaeled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
Egyptian workers and archaeologists standing next to an opened intact sarcophagus containing a well-preserved mummy of a woman named "Thuya" wrapped in linen, discovered by a French mission at the site of Tomb TT33, Nov. 24, 2018.

The sarcophagi of the priest and his wife were found in the tomb in addition to 1,000 funerary figurines known as Ushabti.

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The discovery work was carried out by an Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities mission.

A separate discovery by a French-led mission from the French Institute for Eastern Archaeology and the University of Strasbourg was unveiled on the same day.

Khaeled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
gypt's Antiquities Minister and the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, inspect an intact sarcophagus during its opening at the site of Tomb TT33 at Al-Assasif necropolis in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, Nov. 24, 2018.

The mission unveiled an intact sarcophagus of a female mummy called Thuya.

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Thuya’s sarcophagus dates to the 18th dynasty — a period marked by some of the most well-known pharaohs such as Ramses II and Tutankhamun.

Archaeological discoveries are highly promoted by Egypt in an effort to boost the country's slowly-recovering tourism sector.

Khaeled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
A carved black wooden sarcophagus dating to Egypt's Late period (7th-4th century BC), lying in a burial chamber at Al-Assasif necropolis on the west bank of the Nile north of the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, Nov. 24, 2018.