An Egyptian-Italian archaeological mission has discovered 20 well-preserved 2,000-year-old mummies in the necropolis around the mausoleum of Aga Khan in West Aswan, Egypt. The mummies were found in a large and previously unknown tomb beneath a place of worship dedicated to the Ancient Egyptian god Khnum.

The whole complex, well preserved despite showing traces of fire, consists of two structures. The above-ground portion was the first structure to be found in this ancient cemetery, which extends over a vast area on the west bank of the Nile’s First Cataract. The second, the tomb, was carved into the rock beneath. The team is now working out their connection to each other and to the rest of the necropolis.

The discovery came as a surprise to the mission. The team decided to focus last year on the above-ground structure, which was originally believed to be a tomb. During the excavation, they found evidence of a worship site including fragments of pottery, offering tables, fruit remnants, slabs inscribed in hieroglyphs and most importantly, a huge trove of animal bones, mainly rams. The head of Khnum, one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities, is usually depicted with a ram's head.

Patrizia Piacentini is a professor of egyptology at the University of Milan, Italy, and co-head of the mission. She told Al-Monitor, “We thought it was the court of a tomb, and we started to excavate there because it was different from the tombs we had found before. Clearly there were offerings; this was a sort of an offering place,” she added.