Millions of dog mummies found in mass grave in Egypt

London: Archaeologists have unearthed a mass grave next to an ancient temple in Egypt that once contained nearly eight million mummified dogs and puppies.

Ancient Egyptians built the temple and catacomb in honour of Anubis, the jackal-headed God of death, in Saqqara, a burial ground in the country's ancient capital of Memphis. The catatomb may have once held nearly eight million mummified puppies and grown dogs, researchers have estimated. Many of the mummies have since disintegrated or been disrupted by grave robbers and industrialists, who likely used the mummies for fertiliser. Paul Nicholson, a professor of archaeology at Cardiff University in the UK studied the catacomb's rock walls and mummified contents. The catacomb was likely built in the fourth century BC, and was made out of stone from the Lower Eocene (about 56 million to 48 million years ago).

In addition to canine mummies, researchers found the mummies of jackals, foxes, falcons, cats and mongoose, although about 92 per cent of the remains belonged to dogs, 'Live Science' reported.