Australian archaeologists have discovered one of the best preserved ancient Egyptian mummies dating from about 2,600 years ago, Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities has said.

The Australian team digging near the Saqqara pyramids, 25 kilometers south of Cairo, found three coffins last week dating from the 26th Dynasty (664-525 BC), Hawass said.

The 26th Dynasty ruled ancient Egypt immediately before Persians occupied the area for about 80 years.

"In one of them (coffins) there is one of the best preserved mummies ever found dating from the 26th Dynasty," Hawass said.

Two of the coffins contained male mummies and were crafted to represent bearded figures wearing elaborate collars with their arms crossed over their chests, the antiquities council said in a statement.

The male mummies were wrapped in linen and covered from head to knee by a net of beads arranged to depict how they looked in life, it said.

The third coffin, which was in worse condition than the other two, contained a mummified woman who was covered by a net of mosaic beads depicting her, the council said.

The mummies will be exhibited at a new museum named after Imhotep, builder of the first Egyptian pyramid, to be opened in Saqqara in three months, Hawass said.

Last year French and Egyptian archaeologists uncovered more than 50 mummies from the same period buried in deep shafts in the same area.

(China Daily March 3, 2005)