3,000-year-old tombs found in Egypt

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LUXOR, Egypt, Jan. 14 (UPI) -- Archaeologists say excavations near the southern Egyptian city of Luxor have unearthed 3,000-year-old tombs, likely the resting places of wealthy people.

Italian researchers uncovered the tombs beneath the mortuary temple of the Pharaoh Amenhotep II, who reigned from 1427 B.C. to 1401 B.C., Egypt's Antiquities Ministry said.

Alongside remains of wooden sarcophagi and human bones, the researchers discovered large vessels known as canopic or funerary jars used to preserve internal organs of the deceased, decorated with images of the four sons of the god Horus, images believed to aid the soul in finding its way into the afterlife.

The discovery was important because it proved the Amenhotep temple was used not just for worship but for burial as well, Wafaa Elsaddik, a professor of Egyptology, told the BBC.

The high quality of the jars found within the tombs suggests they had belonged to people of wealth, she said.