A robot archaeologist is to be sent deep inside Egypt's largest pyramid in a bid to solve secrets revealed by a first foray more than four years ago, antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass said.

"The new robot will be sent down very narrow passages in the so-called Queen's Chamber, where the first robot was sent in 2002," said Hawass, who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Teams from Egypt and Singapore and a joint group from Britain and Hong Kong plan to insert the robot in February inside the Pyramid of Cheops at Giza, near to Cairo.

Equipped with tiny cameras, the robot will be sent down the chamber's north and south passages in the hope of discovering what lies behind two inner walls — or doors — revealed during the first robotic expedition in September 2002...

Robot to penetrate deep inside Cheops pyramid, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, November 30, 2006.

An Egyptian-Polish archaeological mission discovered a large collection of pottery fragments, pieces of car tonnage and parts of the priest Bani-mesu's sarcophagus while excavating at Queen Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari on Luxor's west bank.

Numerous pieces of ostraca, pottery, ushabti figurines, papyri written in Coptic and fragments of a nemes headdress of king Thutmose III have also been unearthed.

The team also continued its programme of restoring, documenting, and drawing of the New Kingdom shrines on the third terrace of Deir el-Bahari, including those of Thutmose III, Queen Hatshepsut, and the northern and southern shrines of Amun-Re.

Artefacts found in Luxor, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, November 30, 2006.

Driving in Cairo is a true test of bravery.

Lane etiquette is a secondary factor as cars, buses and dangerously speeding taxi’s compete for space on the busy roads.

Don’t be surprised to see rickshaws pulled by lumbering horses or more nimble donkeys trotting along in the fast lane; while pedestrians with a death wish attempt to cross this Egyptian equivalent of the M1.

Add the constantly blaring horns and the regular scream of ambulance sirens and you are a million miles away from the original Land of the Pharaohs. Or just a few miles... for on the edge of this densely packed city sit the Pyramids of Giza, three massive signatures of another age...

Surviving a visit to the pyramids, Craig Lewis, Milton Keynes News, UK, November 29, 2006.

It is commonplace for American museums to dispose of works of art. But eyebrows are being raised at the sale of an irreplaceable collection of antiquities from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, to free up funds to purchase work by emerging contemporary artists.

More than 200 objects will be sold by Sotheby's, New York, in its specialist sales next March, including some pieces so important that their likes have never been seen at auction before. The sale is estimated to total $15 million (£7.8 million).

London dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi, kingpin of the Chinese art market, describes the Chinese sculpture on offer - including a massive limestone chimera from the sixth century BC - as "outstanding". "This is a hugely exciting sale," he says.

Antiquities is traditionally a market in which dealers dominate and the best objects change hands discreetly, with minimum publicity and no questions asked. "Top-quality works like the ones in the Albright-Knox sale are normally traded privately," says Sotheby's Indian art expert, Anu Ghosh-Mazumdar...

Doesn't strike me as a good idea.

Antiquities sold to pay for new art bonanza, Elspeth Moncrieff, The Guardian, UK, November 28, 2006.