Tombs of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony 'discovered'

Published on Wednesday 15 April 2009 22:01

THE tombs of the doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Anthony may have been discovered in Egypt, scientists announced yesterday.

Archaeologists will begin excavating three likely sites near the Mediterranean next week.

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said the sites were identified last month during a radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna as part of the search for the tombs.

The temple is near the northern coastal city of Alexandria, and was built during the reign of King Ptolemy II in the third century BC.

Teams from Egypt and the Dominican Republic have been excavating the temple for the past three years.

The queen of Egypt and her Roman general lover took their own lives after being defeated in the battle of Actium in 31BC. Ever since, questions have lingered over where their bodies were buried.

Several deep shafts have been found inside the temple, three of which were possibly used for burials.

Last year, archaeologists at the site also unearthed a bronze statue of the goddess Aphrodite, the alabaster head of a Queen Cleopatra statue, a mask believed to belong to Mark Anthony and a headless statue from the Ptolemaic era.

The expedition also found 22 coins bearing Cleopatra's image. Zahi Hawass, a leading Egyptian archaeologist, said that the statue and coins debunked a recent theory that the queen was "quite ugly".