Cairo, Feb 3 (IANS) Fifty mummies dating back to the Ptolemaic era (305-30 BC) have been found by Egyptian archaeologists, the Antiquities Ministry has said.

The mummies, of which 12 were children, were found in four burial chambers 9 metre deep in the Tuna El-Gebel site in Minya, south of the capital Cairo, the BBC reported on Saturday.

Some were wrapped in linen, others were in stone coffins or wooden sarcophagi.

Their identities were unknown, officials said, but they were likely to have held important positions.

--IANS pgh/