By Zahi Hawass There are 26 tombs of Pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings. Aside from that, the valley is home to 36 tombs which once belonging to royal relatives or courtiers, many of whom are now anonymous. Only a little more than a month ago a new tomb was found in the valley, bringing the total number to 63. The new tomb was found about seven metres away from the tomb of Tutankhamun by Otto Schaden of the University of Memphis. The story of this discovery began last year, when Schaden wrote to me to say he had found a shaft located near the tomb of Amenmesse of the 19th Dynasty (KV 10). Amenmesse's tomb had been discovered long ago, but Schaden had worked for many years on cleaning and recording it. He never dreamed of working outside the tomb, since this was not part of his concession. However, his luck changed last year when the Inspector of Qurna came to see him and asked him to clean the area around KV 10's entrance as part of a planned Supreme Council of Antiquities project to protect the valley from flooding. While doing so, and purely by accident, Schaden came across the top of this shaft. Schaden wrote to me last year to say he wanted to announce this discovery immediately, when only the outlines of the shaft could be seen on the surface. All that was clear at this point was a shaft filled with stone rubble, but there was no evidence that this would lead to anything important. Excavations could easily have led to nothing. I was astonished that a scholar would ask to announce a shaft -- what would there be for us to say? I contacted Lorelei Corcoran, head of the Egyptology Department at the University of Memphis, to ask about Otto Schaden, because at that time I did not know him well. I said that we should wait until next year, and if anything was discovered we would announce it then. In January of this year, Schaden came to see me with Corcoran. I discovered that Schaden was an extremely pleasant man, very quiet and gentle. He told me he had been simply following the advice of a colleague, and only wanted to avoid problems by asking to announce the shaft. While I was meeting the two doctors I began to worry a little, since neither was trained as an archaeologist; in fact, both are philologists. After 15 minutes with the two scholars, I also began to wonder if they would be visited with a small curse, and if they might start to fight with one another. The University of Memphis team travelled to the Valley of the Kings to begin work on clearing the shaft, and I followed their work closely. I went to the valley with my friend and colleague, Ali Radwan. On my first visit, I found they had excavated down about two metres and found archaeological evidence dating to the 19th Dynasty, although the style of the shaft dated it to the 18th Dynasty. This most probably went to show that the shaft was opened in antiquity, although it was also possible that the ancients might have missed the opening below and left the tomb intact. If the latter were the case, we might be on the verge of a great discovery, the first since the tomb of Tutankhamun was found on 4 November 1922. After Tutankhamun came to light the valley had become silent, and most scholars believed there was nothing left to be found. In early February, Schaden's team reached the bottom of the shaft. To one side they could see that a chamber had been carved into the bedrock. On 10 February I went down into the shaft with Otto and Samir Farag, head of the Supreme Council of Luxor. Schaden and I worked together to clear the stone rubble until we had made an opening about 20 centimetres wide in the chamber's entrance. I took an electric light in my hand and looked inside. To my surprise, the room was full of coffins. As I peered carefully into the gloom, I could count four coffins on the ground and a fifth above them, one with a beautiful mask in late-18th-Dynasty style. To the east were large jars of pottery and alabaster that appeared to be sealed. I was so happy that the valley was once again revealing its magic, after 83 years, three months, and six days. To be continued.
