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Archaeologists in Egypt have a huge cemetery under the sands south of Cairo. The 2,000-year-old necropolis was south of Egypt's capital in the Nile Valley city of Minya. The word necropolis is from ancient Greek and "city of the dead". The necropolis thousands of artifacts, including coffins and statues. Archaeologists excavation work on the site late last year. They found tombs belonging to priests of Thoth. He the ancient god of the moon and wisdom. Thoth was also to be the inventor of writing. Egypt's Antiquities Minister, Khaled al-Anani, said: "We will at least five years to on the necropolis. This is only the beginning of a new discovery."

Mostafa Waziri, the head of the archaeological dig, said he was very excited about the contents of the site. He said he and his colleagues have eight tombs so far. He many more to be found soon. The tombs a wealth of historic treasures. One tomb more than 1,000 statues and four pottery jars that contain the remains of the internal organs of important ancient Egyptians. Mr Waziri also said there 40 sarcophagi. A sarcophagus a stone coffin in which dead bodies were placed. Waziri hopes the new site will to more tourists to Egypt. There has a downturn in tourism since the revolution that place there in 2011.