A nine-step staircase buried near Egypt’s Aga Khan Mausoleum has led archaeologists to an underground tomb containing a six-foot limestone sarcophagus covered in hieroglyphic inscriptions. The discovery is attracting attention for what it reveals about a vast cemetery used for centuries in ancient Aswan.
The find was made by a joint Egyptian-Italian archaeological mission led by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and the University of Milan. Researchers have described the tomb as one of the most architecturally impressive examples uncovered at the site to date.
Far from being an isolated burial, the tomb belongs to the sprawling Aga Khan necropolis, a cemetery that served a diverse population living along Egypt’s southern frontier during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Recent studies are revealing just how extensive that burial landscape was and how long it remained in use.
A Hidden Sarcophagus Covered in Hieroglyphs
The entrance to Tomb No. 38 begins with a staircase descending nine steps below ground level. Archaeologists found mudbrick benches flanking the stairs, likely used to hold offerings during funerary rituals.
At the bottom of the staircase stood a limestone sarcophagus roughly six feet long, positioned on a platform carved directly into the rock. In a translated statement published on Facebook, The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said that vertical hieroglyphic inscriptions running along the monument contain prayers dedicated to local deities and identify the tomb owner as Ka-Mesiu, a high-ranking official.
One of the most striking features is theanthropoid lid, decorated with a carefully modeled human face, a wig, and surviving painted details. The tomb also contained several mummies, including children. Researchers have not specified whether all of the bodies were buried inside the sarcophagus itself.
Part Of A Much Larger Cemetery Than First Imagined
The sarcophagus may be spectacular, but it represents only a small piece of a much bigger archaeological puzzle. A 2026 University of Milan proceedings chapter stated that more than 400 tombs have been georeferenced across over 75,000 square meters of the necropolis. The same publication mentioned that more than 500 tombs were originally mapped and suggests the entire cemetery could extend across roughly 200,000 square meters.
These figures paint a picture of a burial ground far larger than early excavations suggested. Researchers estimated that the currently investigated area covers around 25,000 square meters, leaving much of the necropolis still to be explored.
At the time, Aswan was a multicultural region inhabited by Egyptians, Nubians, Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans. Tomb No. 38 was therefore a part of a cemetery used by this diverse community around Elephantine and Syene.
Speaking about the discoveries, Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathi said that:
“the newly uncovered tombs offer new insights into the social dynamics of the region during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods and reinforce Aswan’s historic status as a major cultural center in southern Egypt.”
Centuries of Burials Revealed by Modern Technology
The wider necropolis is helping archaeologists understand how burial practices changed over time. Mohamed Ismail Khaled, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the site was used by different social groups over several centuries.
Elite families were buried at the top of the plateau, while middle-class burials were concentrated along the slopes near the Aga Khan Mausoleum. Artifacts and mummified remains recovered from tombs AGH038 and AGH039 date from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD.
Research is continuing across other parts of the site. CT scans of two mummies from Tomb AGH026 revealed that they were not a mother and child, as previously believed, but two children aged approximately four to six and eight to nine years old.
