This past year we found a new tomb in Saqqara, in the Gisr el-Mudir area. I was there when we opened a sealed limestone sarcophagus.  Before the event, I could not sleep because I could not stop thinking about the excitement of that moment.  When I arrived, I came down about 11 meters underground, where we began to open the sarcophagus, which had not been touched in 2600 years.

There are many beautiful objects in the Cairo Museum, and some of my favorites are in the collection of King Tutankhamun.  If you visit the Cairo Museum, be sure to look at Tutankamun’s golden mask.

This mask is a masterpiece of art that I believe could never be repeated in history.  The details of the face are beautiful, the eyes are incredible.  This mask was crafted carefully out of gold, glass and lapis lazuli to be the face of the boy king for eternity.

Before the tomb of King Tutankhamun was found, Egyptologists knew very little about this short-reigned king.  Since the discovery of KV 62 in 1922, King Tut has become the most famous pharaoh, and there has been much debate about why he died so young.

On the West Bank of Thebes, there are over 800 tombs located in the hills of the area known as el-Qurna. Though some of them, such as Theban Tomb 100, that of Rekhmire, may be known to the public, there are many that have been neglected and lost since antiquity.  With my colleagues, I have recently investigated many of these tombs, including many that were only recently discovered.