The ancient remains were discovered in Abu Gorab, south of Cairo, and is believed to be one of six sun temples built some 4,500 years ago

Archaeologists digging in the Egyptian desert have unearthed what is touted as their biggest discovery in decades; a sun temple thought to have been constructed by the pharaohs.

The ancient remains were discovered in Abu Gorab, south of Cairo, and is believed to be one of six sun temples built some 4,500 years ago.

Only two of these temples have been found to date.

But experts like Dr Mᴀssimiliano Nuzzolo, ᴀssistant professor of Egyptology at the Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, have spent their careers trying to discover the others.

The temples were built while the pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty were still alive, with the purpose of granting them the status of god.

On the other hand, pyramids were built as final resting places to ensure pharaohs were resurrected as gods in the afterlife.

Experts digging north of Egyptian archaeology locality Abusir first uncovered hints that a sun temple had existed in the spot, with signs of a building having sat atop the ground.

It was believed the latest sun temple uncovered was built by Nyuserre Ini, an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh and the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period.

Ini ruled for about 30 years in the 25th century BC.

Further investigations revealed an older building base made from mud bricks and the two-foot deep base of a white limestone pillar.

Experts said this suggested the original structure was “quite impressive”, according to reports from the Telegraph.

It was fifty years later that researchers uncovered more proof that the old site was a temple, digging up an array of beer jars filled with mud.

Experts said the tokens would have been a ritual offering reserved for the most sacred places.

Dr Mᴀssimiliano Nuzzolo, ᴀssistant professor of Egyptology at the Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, said: “We knew that there was something below the stone temple of Nyuserre, but we [didn’t] know if it is just another building phase of the same temple or if it is a new temple.

“I have now many proofs that what we are excavating here is one of the lost sun temples.”

Despite the now-extensive evidence that a sun temple existed on the site, it remains a mystery who the sun temple was built for and when.

It was thought likely to have been constructed for a ruler from the same time period.