The pharoah's female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused his body to convert an excessive number of its male hormones to female hormones, Dr. Irwin Braverman was due to tell a conference on the deaths of historic figures. U.S. Egyptologist Donald B. Redford backed Dr. Braverman's belief that Akhenaten had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder marked by lengthened features, including fingers and the face.

More than 4,500 years after the Ancient Egyptians built the marvels at Giza, a new museum is taking shape that when finished will be bigger than the Louvre in France. That new structure is the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which, when complete, will be the biggest museum of Egyptology in the world, and (it’s claimed) the largest archaeo-logical museum of any sort.

Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif issued a decree on the formation of a national committee for the restoration of illegally trafficked artifacts from Egypt. The committee is composed of 8 representatives from concerned ministries and agencies, along with a group of experts in the international law and antiquities.

Dayton police said someone stole an ancient Egyptian necklace from the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. The necklace, made from carnelian gems, was donated in the 1940s, but it is believed to be several thousand years old.

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

A number of elite tombs from Ancient Egypt are now accessible to all thanks to the launch of the Mastabase. The Mastabase is a CD-ROM containing descriptions and hieroglyphic inscriptions of scenes of daily life from 337 Mastaba tombs. This resource will make research into these elite tombs a lot easier. On 13 May 2008, Dutch Egyptologist René van Walsem will officially present the MastaBase in Leiden, Netherlands.

The National Archeological Museum in Athens is putting more than 1,100 pieces from the collection on permanent exhibition, as more of its halls open to the public following years of renovation. The previous Egyptian display, shelved six years ago, included just 350 artifacts. Most of the current collection - which museum officials say is one of the best in the world - has never been shown to the public before due to lack of space.

Prof. Dr. Stephan J. Seidlmayer has been elected as new director of the DAI (German Archeaological Institute in Cairo), he will succed Prof. Dr. Günther Dreyer.

Spain and Egypt will start a project later this year to investigate the 19th century sinking of a ship that some believe contained the mummy of a Fourth Dynasty pharaoh, news agency MENA said.

Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has started searching for the entrance to Cleopatras tomb at the site of a temple, the Taposiris Magna, 28 miles west of Alexandria. Hawass has discovered a 400ft tunnel beneath the temple containing clues that the supposedly beautiful queen may lie beneath. “We’ve found tunnels with statues of Cleopatra and many coins bearing her face, things you wouldn’t expect in a typical temple,” he said.