Egypt's Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anany announced the discovery of seven pharaonic tombs in Giza province's Saqqara Necropolis on Saturday.

The discovery was made by an Egyptian archaeological mission during excavation works at the area located on the stony edge of the King Userkaf pyramid complex in the Saqqara Necropolis, al-Anany said.

The minister explained that the mission had uncovered three plain New Kingdom tombs that were used during the Late Period as a necropolis for cats, along with four other Old Kingdom tombs, the most important of which belongs to Khufu-Imhat, the overseer of the royal buildings in the royal palace.

"Since the beginning of 2017 there have been archaeological discoveries on a regular basis. There were Egyptian expeditions and foreign ones. We've been lucky during the past 20 months, or a year and a half, more precisely." He also said that the Egyptian mission selected such a site to excavate because "there was a high probability that a collection of Old Kingdom tombs for individuals could be uncovered around the ramp of King Userkaf pyramid complex."

A French mission previously excavated the eastern section of the site and uncovered a collection of Old and New Kingdom tombs that were used during the Late Period as cats' graves, he said.

The French mission has stopped all excavations on site since 2008 and devoted all its work to studying documents and restoring some of the discovered tombs. However, all the works were completely stopped in 2013.

"This is the first of three upcoming new discoveries in other governorates in Upper Egypt to be announced before the end of 2018," al-Anany said.

During the inauguration ceremony, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri announced that the Egyptian mission succeeded in unearthing the first ever scarabs mummies from the Memphis necropolis, as two large mummies of scarabs have been found inside a rectangular limestone sarcophagus with a vaulted lid decorated with paintings of three black scarabs.

"Tens of cat mummies were also unearthed along with 100 wooden gilded statues of cats and a bronze one dedicated to the cat goddess Bastet," Waziri revealed.

He added that a collection of wooden gilded statues depicting the physical features of a lion, a cow, and a falcon was also unearthed.

"Painted wooden sarcophagi of Cobras with mummies found inside them were also discovered along with two wooden sarcophagi of crocodiles," Waziri explained.

Egypt, one of the world's most ancient civilizations, has been working hard to preserve its archaeological heritage and discover the secrets of its ancient antiquities in a bid to revive the country's ailing tourism sector, which has suffered an acute recession over the past few years due to political turmoil and security issues.

(With input from Xinhua. Qi Jie also contributed to the story.)

(Cover: Archaeologists work in a tomb in Saqqara Necropolis in Giza Province, Egypt, November 10, 2018. /Xinhua Photo)