In Pictures: Egypt unveils biggest ancient coffin find in over a century

A worker is digging at the site where nearly 30 painted coffins were discovered. Egypt unveiled the details of 30 ancient wooden coffins with mummies inside discovered in the southern city of Luxor in the biggest find of its kind in more than a century.

Archaeologists stand around painted ancient coffins at Al-Asasif necropolis. A team of Egyptian archaeologists discovered a "distinctive group of 30 coloured wooden coffins for men, women and children" in a cache at Al-Asasif cemetery on Luxor's west bank, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement.

Tourists look at painted ancient coffins at Al-Asasif necropolis. "It is the first large human coffin cache ever discovered since the end of the 19th century," the Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany was quoted as saying during a ceremony in Luxor.

The intricately carved and painted coffins, three thousand years old, were closed with mummies inside and were in "a good condition of preservation, colours and complete inscriptions," the statement added.

They were for male and female priests and children, said Mostafa Waziri, the excavation team leader, dating back to the 10th century BC under the rule of the 22nd Pharaonic dynasty.

Excavators sit behind painted ancient coffins at Al-Asasif necropolis. The coffins will undergo restoration before being moved to a showroom at the Grand Egyptian Museum, due to open next year next to the Giza pyramids, the ministry said.

The discovery is the latest in a series of major finds of ancient relics that Egypt hopes will revive its tourism sector, which has been badly hit by political instability since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian archeologist open a wooden coffin belonging to a man in front Hatshepsut Temple at Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

Archaeologists remove the cover of an ancient painted coffin discovered at al-Asasif Necropolis in the Vally of Kings in Luxor, Egypt.

Archaeologists remove the cover of an ancient painted coffin discovered at al-Asasif Necropolis in the Vally of Kings in Luxor, Egypt.

Archaoelogists remove the cover of an ancient painted coffin discovered at al-Asasif Necropolis in the Vally of Kings in Luxor, Egypt.

A mummy is seen inside a painted coffin discovered at Al-Asasif Necropolis in the Vally of Kings in Luxor, Egypt.