Egyptian archaeologists who have completed excavations on the unfinished ancient tunnel in the tomb of Seti I believe it was meant to connect a 3,300-year-old pharaoh's tomb with a secret burial site. The tunnel has now been completely cleared and archaeologists discovered ancient figurines, shards of pottery and instructions left by the architect for the workmen.

Documents show that Howard Carter cheated on many counts, manipulating photographs, forging documentation on the discovery and deceiving the Egyptian Antiquities Service. Objects in several museums have now been revealed to belong to Tutankhamun's treasures.

The project to restore the tomb is the latest collaboration between Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Los Angeles-based Getty Conservation Institute, which in the past restored nearby tombs and designed airtight cases to display Egypt's mummies. The conservation plan will involve a two-year research period to determine the causes of deterioration, followed by three years of implementation. The SCA said it had yet to decide how long the tomb would be closed during that time.

Ancient choices made by Egyptians digging burial tombs may have led to today's problems with damage and curation of these precious archaeological treasures, but photography and detailed geological mapping should help curators protect the sites, according to a Penn State researcher.

Flash floods, caused by violent thunderstorms and occurring about every one or two centuries, have been the scourge of the Theban Hills as long as history can remember, and they’ve taken a heavy toll on its tombs. How did ancient Egyptians cope? And is there a risk that – if the heavens open so wide again soon – further damage might be caused yet?

The ornate pharaonic tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings are doomed to disappear within 150 to 500 years if they remain open to tourists, the head of antiquities has warned. Zahi Hawass said humidity and fungus are eating into the walls of the royal tombs in the huge necropolis on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor.

In the area in the cliffs between the tombs of Ramesses II and Merenptah, a man-made drainage channel has been found that probably helped prevent the flooding of the royal tombs in the vicinity.

Three mummies have been moved from the Valley of the Kings in Luxor to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to begin extensive studies of their origins, Egyptian authorities recently announced. Two female mummies found in a tomb known as KV21 and one male mummy found outside the tomb of Pharaoh Seti II, who ruled Egypt from 1200 to 1194 B.C., will undergo CAT scans and DNA analysis. The project is a five-year plan launched by Hawass to test and catalog the DNA of every mummy in the country.

Article by S. Hawass about work carried out at the tomb of Seti I and the search for the tomb of Ramesses VIII.

Egyptian archaeologists have discovered that the tomb of the powerful pharaoh Seti I—the largest tomb in the Valley of the Kings—is bigger than originally believed. During a recent excavation, the team found that the crypt is actually 446 feet (136 meters) in length. Giovanni Battista Belzoni, who discovered the tomb in 1817, had noted the tomb at 328 feet (100 meters).