Valley of the Golden Mummies (1996)
One day in the Bahariya Oasis of the Western Desert, a guard overseeing a site 380 km west of the pyramids went chasing after a wayward donkey. The donkey’s leg fell into a hole in the ground. The guard looked in, and what he found led researchers to 105 mummies dating back to 332 BCE. Some mummies were encased in cartonnage, others wrapped in linen, some in anthropoid coffins (pottery coffins decorated with a human face), and others gilded with shining death masks. The tombs escaped the clutches of raiders, allowing researchers to preserve the items that help fill in the puzzle of ancient Egyptian culture, golden funerary masks, jewelry, small statues depicting mourners, coins, amulets, and other personal effects.