Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany said that the very well preserved remains were of 23 men, five women, and two children and that some of the men appeared to be priests. He said that they knew this because of hands painted on the coffin: closed fists for males and open hands for females. Also painted on the coffins were hieroglyphs, depictions of deities and of scenes from the Book of the Dead, and even the names of the some of the dead.

Leading the dig was General Secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri, who called attention to the vibrant colors, which were still rich after 3,000 years. The coffins were stacked in two layers on top of one another–with 12 coffins in the bottom layer and 18 in the top layer–and buried three feet below the surface of the sand in Al-Asasif Cemetery, an old necropolis near what is today Luxor but in ancient times was Thebes. The Egyptians buried there a number of leaders, including pharaohs from the 18th, 25th, and 26th Dynasties. Another group of archaeologists in November 2018 found in the same cemetery a well preserved mummy of a woman from the same time period. Authorities made the announcement by for the first time opening a sarcophagus in front of international media.

Archaeologists will restore the mummies and then house them in the Grand Egyptian Museum, set to open in late 2020 near the Giza Pyramids.

The last Egypt-led excavation that resulted in such a large find was in the 19th Century, officials said.