By Zahi Hawass I always wanted to work in the Valley of the Kings. There is something magical about the cliffs that contain the tombs of the most famous kings of Egypt. Sixty-three tombs are recorded in the famous valley, 26 of which belonged to these great Pharaohs and the others to their most valued nobles. For more than two years my team and I have been excavating a tunnel that leads deep into the cliffs from the burial chamber of the tomb of Seti I, one of the great warrior kings of the 19th Dynasty (ca. 1291-1278 BC). We have now reached the end of the tunnel, and for the first time the mystery has been revealed to us. The story goes back almost 40 years when as a young man I was working in the Valley of the Kings. There I met the late Sheikh Ali Abdel-Rassoul, then 70 years old, a member of the famous Abdel-Rassoul family who knew many secrets about the Valley of the Kings. This family found the cache of mummies at Deir Al-Bahari, which they kept secret from the authorities until 1881. Sheikh Ali took me by the hand and led me to the tomb of Seti I which, at about 100 metres, is the longest tomb in the Valley of the Kings. He showed me a tunnel that extends downwards from the king's burial chamber, and explained to me how he had explored it to a depth of about 130 metres, further than any archaeologist had gone up to that point. Sheikh Ali had been excavating with the permission of the Antiquities Service in 1960, but this permit was revoked after only a few months and he was unable to go any further. Sheikh Ali told me that when I become a great archaeologist I should come back to the tomb and find out what lay at the end of this tunnel. He believed that it would be the true burial chamber of the king, hidden away behind a false burial chamber in order to protect it from robbers. I did not really believe Sheikh Ali at the time, but I knew that we had no artefacts from the burial of Seti I which could mean that his real resting place had not been found. There was no evidence that the tunnel led to anything significant, but over the years I came to think that regardless of what we might find at the end of the tunnel it would be good to explore it to determine its real function. When we first considered investigating the tunnel in 2007, we found that the rock in which it was carved was unstable, making it extremely unsafe to work in. Everyone was afraid that the excavation would cause the tunnel to cave in. I discovered that this was the reason why Egyptologists had avoided excavating the tunnel. Despite the fact that no one had ever succeeded, I decided to take the risk and do the work. Before we began I consulted Ayman Hamed, an expert in soil mechanics. He devised a plan to excavate the tunnel while simultaneously protecting the tomb itself. He said that the tunnel could be supported by iron beams. The walls of the burial chamber from which the tunnel extends needed to be covered in order to protect the paintings. Lastly, he wanted to build wooden stairs and a trail way to transport the sand and stone rubble removed from the excavation. Before we started our excavation we stabilised the interior, using a system of iron beams to support the walls and ceiling. During the excavation we found many artefacts on the ground, such as pottery and ushabti (votive) figurines dating from the 19th Dynasty, and even stones inscribed with the name of Seti I. Steps with graffiti were also found in several locations. We thought that the artefacts might show that something important lay at the end of the tunnel. We also discovered where Sheikh Ali excavated. He reached a depth of 130 metres before losing the real path, and in fact he started digging into the bedrock itself! We have excavated about 174 metres inside the mountain and have reached the end. We have found interesting evidence that suggested Seti I built a royal tomb inside a tomb. Soon, the secrets of Seti I will be revealed. To be continued...
