KHARTOUM, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Sudanese Ministry of Tourism, Antiquities and Wildlife announced on Tuesday the discovery of ancient tombs with a history of more than 4,000 years, dating back to the period of the Kingdom of Kerma in northern Sudan (2,500-1,500 B.C.), Sudanese Media Center (SMC) reported.
"A government mission has found skeletons buried on a wooden bed covered with linen, a collection of funerary furniture, pottery and bronze collectibles with some old ornaments and amulets at Barbar area of Nahr al-Neel State in northern Sudan, some 311 km north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum," the report said.
"The new discovery will not cripple the development projects currently been witnessed by the area," Minister of Investment and Tourism in Nahr al-Neel State, Mahmoud Mohamed Mahmoud, was quoted as saying.
He added that establishment of development and agricultural projects actively contributes to the archaeological discovery.
Barbar is a historical city dating back to the Meroitic era and lies on the eastern bank of the River Nile at 1,095 meters above sea level.
Sudanese Ministry of Tourism, Antiquities and Wildlife presented earlier 15 tourist investment projects in five states including Khartoum, Nahr al-Neel, Port-Sudan, Northern State, Sinnar and South Darfur.
In April this year, Sudan announced discovery of an archaeological site in North Kordofan State dating back to the modern stone age between 4,500-9,000 B.C.
Recently Khartoum registered Sanganeb Marine National Park and Dungonab Bay-Mukkawar Island National Park, on the Red Sea coast in eastern Sudan, to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Sudan has been working to reactivate the tourism sector to assume its natural position as an important resource for the country, which has been facing economic difficulties following the separation of South Sudan in 2011 which took away around 70 percent of Sudan's oil revenues.
According to the ministry's latest statistics, the tourism revenues for 2015 amounted to 930 million U.S. dollars, while the number of tourists jumped up to 700,000.
The Sudanese tourism ministry expects the number of tourists to rise to two millions during this year after the Sudanese and Chinese governments signed a number of agreements in November last year, including a deal to facilitate entry of one million Chinese tourists to Sudan in the coming months.
