This preliminary survey led to the discovery of four tombs, and eventually, Dr. Hawass was unable to leave his excavation site at Giza right away, so he requested that the antiquities inspectorate conduct the preliminary survey of the area.

Hawass to request that his team come in and take a look. The director of the SCA office at Bahariya Oasis, Ashry Shaker, contacted Dr. It was apparent that this was an important discovery, but the local antiquities inspectorate at the Bahariya Oasis did not have the resources to excavate the area.

When Megoud peered through the hole he saw gold glittering in the distance. A guard named Abdul Megoud had been chasing a donkey when the donkey’s leg fell through a hole in the ground. Zahi Hawass and his team at Bahariya Oasis, located about 380 km west of the pyramids. The initial discovery was believed to be just the tip of the iceberg, however, as it is thought that there may be up to 10,000 mummies lying within the cemetery. Upon the first excavation, four of the tombs were found to contain 105 well-preserved mummies, many of them containing elaborate golden masks hence the cemetery came to be known as ‘Valley of the Golden Mummies’. Archaeologists uncovered a two-square-mile necropolis that contained a number of important tombs.

In 1996, an astonishing discovery was made in Egypt.