Secret tunnels and ancient mysteries

Clockwise from top: the secret tunnel inside Seti I's tomb; an inscribed ostraca and an ushabti figurine unearthed in the tunnel

When the famous explorer Giovanni Battista Belzoni discovered the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I in 1817, he knew that it represented a very developed example of a New Kingdom royal tomb. Not only was it the longest, deepest and most completed tomb ever found in the Valley of the Kings, but its walls were painted with fine scenes in full colour featuring the great pharaoh i...