Dog catacomb with 8 million mummies surveyed at Saqqara

Researchers have surveyed a dog catacomb containing 8million dog mummies found near the temple of Anubis at Saqqara in Egypt.

In ancient Egypt, so many people worshiped Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death, that the catacombs next to his sacred temple once held nearly 8 million mummified puppies and grown dogs, a new study finds.

The catacomb ceiling also contains the fossil of an ancient sea monster, a marine vertebrate that’s more than 48 million years old, but it’s unclear whether the Egyptians noticed the existence of the fossil when they built the tomb for the canine mummies, the researchers said.

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Story: Laura Geggel, LiveScience | Photo: P.T. Nicholson; Copyright Antiquity Trust