The supposed discovery of a remote cemetery with one million mummies isn't true, according to Egypt's ministry of culture.

The discovery made headlines last week. Yousef Khalifa, the chairman of Egypt's antiquities sector, claims the report isn't accurate.

Kerry Muhlestein from Brigham Young University and lead researcher of the team that claimed to have discovered one million mummies presented his team's findings at the Study of Egyptian Antiquities Scholars Colloquium conference in Toronto.

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The study spans 28 years during which Muhlestein and his team conducted excavations and research in a remote site called Fag el-Gamous near Fayoum some 60 miles south of Cairo.

Muhlestein admits he and his team didn't excavate one million bodies.

He instead suggested the size of the cemetery and the estimate of the burial density suggest one million skeletons are at the site. Muhlestein believes there are over a million burials in the cemetery since it's large and dense, he told Live Science.

Khalifa however, disputes this claim saying that Muhlestein's calculations are wrong. He says the cemetery may contain a lot of skeletons, maybe a few thousand, but definitely not one million.

Khalifa also challenges the use of the term mummy. Muhlestein also admits the term was used loosely. Khalifa says this term is not applicable to these burials as the bodies didn't undergo the true mummification process.

Apart from a misunderstanding of terms and incorrect data about the burials, Khalifa believes this misuse of information is a grave violation by Muhlestein and his team when they conducted their research and excavations in the first place.

Khalifa declared the team's mission violated Egypt's rules and regulations under the  Ministry of Antiquities. The committee of the ancient Egypt department made a decision to ban Muhlestein and his team from the site they had worked on for 28 years.

Muhlestein still believes the ban will be lifted so he and his team can continue their research. He expresses his deep respect for the ministry even if they had their misunderstandings.

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