CAIRO (Reuters) - Japanese archaeologists have uncovered a 3,000-year-old sarcophagus of a New Kingdom pharaoh in southern Cairo. The Japanese team told Reuters Television in a weekend interview the tomb, buried 15 metres below the ground at Dahshur about 35 km south of Cairo, probably belonged to a pharaoh of the late 18th Dynasty. "It`s a huge one," said Sakuji Yoshimura, director of the Egyptian Culture Centre, which has been excavating the area of Dahshur North since 1996. The ancient tomb-chapel was composed of a mud brick building representing a cemetery. Inside was a large red granite sarcophagus, around three metres in length, 1.5 metres wide and 1.2 metres high. Yoshimura said the pharaoh`s mummy was not found but around 4,000 objects were discovered within the tomb-chapel including pottery items, stone fragments and human bones thought to belong to grave robbers. "The discovery of the tomb of Mess at Dahshur is one of the most important discoveries because this is the first time a tomb dating to the New Kingdom...is discovered in this site," said Zahi Hawas, director of the Giza pyramids plateau. "I`m sure that this tomb will lead the expedition to find more tombs," Hawas said.