Spanish experts found a sarcophagus containing a 3,600-year-old mummy in the southern city of Luxor, Egypt's antiquities minister said.

 

 The discovery was made on the west bank of the Nile and dates back to the 17th dynasty (around 1600 B.C.), which governed Upper (southern) Egypt from what is now Luxor, Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement.

 

 The discovery was made while excavating the front patio of the tomb of Yehuti, who was supervisor of the storehouses of Queen Hatshepsut, who reigned from 1502 to 1482 B.C.

 

 Ibrahim said the importance of the newly discovered coffin lies in the fact that it is one of those said to be "of feathers", because its lid is decorated in the likeness of bird's feathers.

 

 The sarcophagus is two metres long and 50 cm wide, according to the head of the antiquities ministry's pharaonic department, Ali El-Asfar.

 

 "Its owner could have been an important statesman, according to the sarcophagus's preliminary examination and its inscriptions," he said.

 

 The head of the team of Spanish archaeologists, Jose Manuel Galan, recalled that they began their excavations in the area 13 years ago, and said that last year they discovered another wooden sarcophagus, that one holding the mummy of a 5-year-old boy, which also dated back to the 17th dynasty.