When Zakaria Goneim opened the sarcophagus that had bean sealed for over 5,000 years inside King Sekhemkhet's burial chamber in Saqqara only to find it empty, disappointment filled the chamber.

Among those present were the then President Jamal Abdul Nasser and senior revolutionary commanders as well as a number of reporters from newspapers and news agencies from around the world. The news of the empty coffin spread, although Zakaria Goneim had found a bouquet of funeral flowers placed on the coffin, which confirmed the existence of the king's mummy intact inside it. Newspapers and news agencies ascribed the empty coffin to the curse of the Pharaohs.

When the Valley of the Kings tomb KV-63 was discovered last year, the whole world was taken back by the spectacular discovery, especially as it was the first in the Valley of the Kings since Howard Carter's 1922 discovery of the tomb of the Golden Pharaoh, Tutankhamun. The new tomb is located directly opposite King Tutankhamun's tomb. I was surprised at the presence of thousands of journalists and reporters who came from all over the globe to attend the press conference that we held in Luxor to announce the great discovery...

Mystery of the Pharaonic Coffins, Zahi Hawass, Asharq Alawsat, UK, May 08, 2007.

The world of the Pharaohs is undoubtedly one of charm and imagination. Despite the small number of tombs that have been discovered intact and untouched since burial, the world of the Pharaohs is still rich for the public's imagination and writer's imagination. In forthcoming articles, we will be dealing with key archaeological discoveries from the Pharaonic age and the stories that accompanied every new discovery that at times, were more interesting than the discovery itself.

When I published my book, , that contained stories and tales that took place before and after my discoveries at the Giza pyramids, Saqqara or the at Bahariya Oasis, the public showed extraordinary interest in those stories that brought them closer to the exciting mysterious world. A few years ago, a Czech expedition headed by Egyptologist discovered a tomb that had not been touched by man for over 2,500 years. The tomb, which belonged to palace official Iufaa, was discovered in Abusir, a site located between the Giza pyramids and Saqqara and contains over 11 pyramids called the forgotten pyramids. The tomb dates from the so-called Saite period-the period of the 26th dynasty.

The tomb was found in a 30-meter deep shaft and its ceiling was in very poor condition. Verner and I agreed that we should build a dome above the tomb for protection...

by Miroslav Verner contains a chapter on Iufaa's tomb – American University in Cairo Press, 2003, pp. 256.

The Tomb of the Palace Official, Zahi Hawass, Asharq Alawsat, UK, May 13, 2007.

The second and almost perfect 29 million-year-old fossilised skull of an ancient relative of humans, apes and monkeys has been unearthed in Egypt, media reported Tuesday.

The skull, from a species known as Aegyptopithecus zeuxis — "linking Egyptian ape" or dawn ape, was identified by Duke University primatologist Elwyn Simons in a quarry on the outskirts of Cairo. Because of the new specimen's remarkable wholeness, Simons and his colleagues were able to subject it to micro CT scanning, a computerized X-ray technique that can be used to calculate the approximate dimensions of the brain the cranium once encased.

According to Simons, the specimen is from a young female that lived in the early Oligocene, a period of global cooling, volcanic eruptions and seismic disturbance, driven by the collision of the Indian and Asian continental plates...

Perfect 29 mln-year-old fossilised skull unearthed in Egypt, Jiang Yuxia, Xinhua, China, May 15, 2007.

... The Rosetta stone unlocked the secrets of the Egyptian hieroglyphics — and is the subject of a book by Professor of Egyptology, John Ray, who will visit Ruislip Manor library on 17th May [2007] to talk about this amazing artefact and the exciting race to decode it...

, John Ray, Profile Books Ltd, 2007, pp. 192.

Talking Loud returns to Hillingdon, April 20, 2007.