Archaeologists in Egypt uncover Alexandria's largest ever Sarcophagus find

Archaeologists in the Egyptian city of Alexandria have uncovered a mysterious six-foot sarcophagus thought to be over 2,000 years old.

The black granite sarcophagus was buried 16.4 feet underground in a tomb from the Ptolemaic period, during which a Hellenistic dynasty established a kingdom in Egypt between 305 B.C. and 30 B.C.

The find was announced by Egypt's supreme council of antiquities last week on Facebook, where the body said that the excavation took place at a building on al-Karmili Street in Alexandria's Sidi Gaber district.

A layer of mortar between the lid and the body of the sarcophagus indicates that it has not been opened since it was closed more than 2,000 years ago.

A carved alabaster head thought to depicts the tomb's owner was also found nearby.

The sarcophagus' discovery follows the recent unearthing of a 2,200-year-old gold coin depicting King Ptolemy III, a descendant of the famed Cleopatra.

In the country's south, archaeologists recently uncovered a rare mable head depicting Roman Emporor Marcus Aurelius.

Authorities in Egypt hope that new archaeological finds will help revive the country's struggling tourism industry, which has suffered due to the turmoil that followed the toppling of former dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

According to official data, Egypt received 8.3 million visitors in 2017, a figure dwarfed by the 2010 pre-revolution figure of 14.7 million.