3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy buried in a pit with a 1.6-meter crocodile

Archaeologists have discovered nearly 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummies along with a rare crocodile mummy in the basement of a church in Ukraine.

Two complete mummies with elaborately decorated stone coffins were found in the Pechersk Lavra cathedral in Kiev, Express reported on May 18.

Also known as the Monastery of the Caves, the ancient Orthodox church revealed its hidden treasures during an inventory. The Egyptian artefacts, dating back to the 11th century BC, were recovered after years in storage.

Egyptian mummy dating back 3,000 years. Photo: Express.

The search also revealed a rare 161cm long crocodile mummy, believed to have come from the temple of Horus and Sobek at Kom Ombo, along with several burial jars used to store organs.

"This mummy comes from the temple of Horus and Sobek in Kom Ombo. The crocodiles were considered to be the objects of worship of the god Sobek. I only know of two or three crocodile mummies this large in Italy and one in the British Museum," said Mykola Tarasenko, a doctor of historical sciences.

161cm long crocodile mummy. Photo: Express.

The 3,000-year-old mummy is that of a woman named Menat, a singer at the Temple of Amon in ancient Egypt. Experts say the unusual finding is because Menat’s hands were placed in a position common in male burials. According to historians, Menat’s head was accidentally broken off from her body during transportation.

The second mummy belonged to a man whose identity is unknown. The coffin's remains indicate that he was of noble birth, with the burial style dating to the 10th or 11th century BC in Thebes, the capital of ancient Egypt.

The mummies were moved to Ukraine in the second half of the 19th century and were last displayed in Kiev in the 1970s.

According to VNE