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...

Dig days: Treasure without end, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 790, April 13 - 19, 2006.

cf. KV-63 official website.

An exhibition entitled "American Contributions to Egyptian Archaeology" in the Egyptian Museum suggests transparency after years of reticence, says Jill Kamil.

Last month's official opening in Room No 44 of the Egyptian Museum of an exhibition of American discoveries in Egypt was a high-profile event. It was launched by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and attended by Frank Ricciardone, the American ambassador in Egypt — who is showing more interest in Egyptian culture than did his predecessors — as well as Gerry Scott, director of the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE), who demonstrates a more amicable attitude to the press, and Wafaa El-Saddik, director of the museum. The objects on display included pieces chosen from the permanent collection of the museum as well as some recent and impressive discoveries.

Cameramen, reporters, invited guests and curious tourists pressed forward to catch sight of the charismatic Hawass as he gave his opening speech. With his usual exuberance he welcomed the opportunity to recognise America's contributions to Egyptian archaeology for more than a century. He mentioned the work of George Reisner at Giza, and made reference to the fact that he had been fortunate in his career to have been friends with two eminent American Egyptologists: David O'Conner, with whom he worked early in his career at Abydos and Malkata, and Mark Lehner, with whom he has worked at Giza for the last 30 years...

An open-door policy, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 790, April 13 - 19, 2006.

Yesterday a Beluga Airbus, the world's largest cargo carrier, landed at Borg Al-Arab Airport near Alexandria to collect 371 of the precious artefacts which have been brought up from Egypt's Mediterranean sea bed over the last six years, reports Nevine El-Aref.

They will be transported to the Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum in Berlin, Germany, where the first-ever international exhibition of “Egypt's Sunken Treasures” will be held. From 13 May to 4 September [2006] Germans and their neighbours will have a chance to admire the testament to an ancient culture that had lain forgotten for 1,500 years. Egypt's sunken treasures will display unique finds discovered during Frank Goddio's underwater expeditions with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) at two legendary sites: Alexandria's ancient Eastern Harbour, with the submerged part of the royal quarter, and the ancient towns of Heracleion and Canopus off the coast at Abu Qir.

Among the objects on show are three gigantic pink granite colossi featuring the Nile god Hapi, a Ptolemaic king and an unidentified Egyptian queen dressed as the goddess Isis. A customs stelae from Heracleion with inscriptions in two languages, hieroglyphic and Greek, will also be on show along with sphinx statues which probably represent Queen Cleopatra's father Ptolemy XII, a head of god Serapis and a black granite shrine known as the "naos of the decades", which is covered with figures and hieroglyphic texts relating to the ancient calendar...

Treasures from the deep, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 790, April 13 - 19, 2006.

The only known copy of the Gospel of Judas, which casts an unorthodox light on events leading up to the Crucifixion, is returning to Egypt. Nevine El-Aref relates the story of the codex and its conflicting perspective.

The gospel of Jesus's favourite disciple, Judas, was on show yesterday in Washington's National Geographic Museum before its return to Egypt where it was found 30 years ago. The fragile codex — made up of 13 papyrus leaves — has been restored with a two-million-dollar fund from the National Geographic Society (NGS) and the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery. Its most recent owners, the Basel-based Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art (MFAA), will now hand the codex over to the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo.

The gospel, written in Coptic in the third or fourth century, is believed to be a translation of an original Greek text belonging to an early Christian sect sometime before AD180. The document offers new insights into the relation between Jesus and Judas, whose betrayal led to his capture and crucifixion. Unlike the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, in which Judas is portrayed as a reviled traitor, the new gospel depicts him as acting on a request by Jesus to hand him over to the Romans.

The codex also contains a text entitled "James", otherwise known as "The First Apocalypse of James", the "Letter of Peter to Philip" and a fragment of a text that scholars are provisionally calling "The Book of Allogenes"...

The gospel according to Judas, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 790, April 13 - 19, 2006.