After an initial limestone slab is removed with a chisel and hammer, she peers through a small hole, exclaiming: “Oh my god, there are two mummies … See this wonder.” In the show, cameras film her as the burial chamber with two mummies is opened up for the first time. Only a tiny percentage of the vast site has been explored.ĭr Kathleen Martínez and Dr Glenn Godenho at the Taposiris Magna temple. Yet not a single Ptolemaic pharaoh’s tomb has been found.Įxcavations at Taposiris Magna are headed by Dr Kathleen Martínez, who, after working there for over 14 years, is more convinced than ever Cleopatra’s tomb will be found there. One bears an image of a scarab, symbolising rebirth, painted in gold leaf.Ĭleopatra was the last of a ruthless dynasty that ruled the Ptolemaic kingdom in Egypt for almost three centuries. One suggestion is they were priests who played a key role in maintaining the pharaohs’ power. The mummies have been X-rayed, establishing that they are male and female. would have been … important members of society,” he said. “Although now covered in dust from 2,000 years underground, at the time these mummies would have been spectacular. It is presented by Dr Glenn Godenho, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at Liverpool University, who described the discovery as phenomenal. The opening of the first-ever intact tomb found at Taposiris Magna was witnessed by cameras for a new Channel 5 documentary, The Hunt for Cleopatra’s Tomb, to be screened on Thursday.
