Saqqara, Egypt ? Archaeologists uncovered three coffins and a remarkably well-preserved mummy in a 2,500-year old tomb discovered by accident — after opening a door hidden in a separate burial chamber, Egypt’s chief archaeologist said Wednesday.

The Australian team was exploring a much older tomb — dating back 4,200 years — belonging to a man believed to have been a tutor to the 6th Dynasty King Pepi II, when they moved a pair of statues and discovered the door, said Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s top antiquities official.

Egyptian workers open an ancient wooden coffin, shaped like a human body that dates back to the 26th Pharaoh Dynasty that ruled from 672 B.C. to 525 B.C., in Sakkara, south of Cairo on Wednesday.

Inside, they found a tomb from the 26th Dynasty with three intricate coffins, each with a mummy.

“Inside one coffin was maybe one of the best mummies ever preserved,” Hawass told reporters at the excavation site in the cemetery of Saqqara.

“The chest of the mummy is covered with beads. Most of the mummies of this period — about 500 B.C. — the beads are completely gone, but this mummy has them all,” he said, standing over one of the mummies that was swathed in turquoise blue beads and bound in strips of black linen.

The names of the mummies have not been determined, but the tomb is thought to be that of a middle-class official.

The door was hidden behind 4,200-year-old statues of a man believed to have been Meri, the tutor of Pepi II, and Meri’s wife, whose name was not revealed.

According to tradition, Pepi II — the last ruler of the 6th Dynasty — ruled from 2278-2184 B.C., one of the longest reigns in ancient Egyptian history.

Archaeologists would begin tests on the mummies to learn more about their medical conditions, including using CT scans, as they were presently doing on King Tutankhamun, Hawass said. The results of Tut’s scans will be revealed next week, he said.