Kent Weeks

As a monument, its appearance is completely misleading: a narrow flight of stairs leading below ground to a still narrower door. To expose the stairs, archeologist Kent Weeks had to nibble away at the roadway covering it, and the pavement remains behind like a giant asphalt cookie with a bite taken out of it. Dotting the area are shabby huts where vendors hawk sodas and keepsakes to the tourists whose buses once unknowingly parked on top of the tomb.

Egypt's Valley of Kings has been a hunting ground for Egyptologists, grave robbers and treasure hunters for 3,000 years. Here the ancient Egyptians buried their most illustrious pharaohs and, among them, the little-known Tutankhamun, whose undisturbed tomb first dazzled the world three-quarters of a century ago. Three millenniums of digging, curious tourists and rare floods or torrential rains have created an archeological nightmare, a jumble of ravaged tombs and lost burial places.

The Sphinx was built by aliens--silver-colored visitors from space, not workers from Nubia. Ramses' tomb was built by slave laborers who were killed after it was finished so that its location could not be revealed. The ancient Egyptians must have had access to high technology that has subsequently been lost, or they couldn't have moved the mammoths blocks used to construct the pyramids. These exotic notions have long colored our perception of the wonders to be found on the arid deserts of Egypt, but a series of new discoveries over the last decade have given the lie to all of them.

It's 1:30 in the morning and the phone is ringing again at Kent Weeks' home. Someone has gotten his number and wants to ask about archeology or chat about ancient Egypt or give unwanted advice. It's been that way since his announcement in May that he had discovered Egypt's biggest Pharaonic tomb, believed to contain the sons of Ramses the Great. A year ago, Weeks was an obscure professor, but articles in magazines and television interviews changed that.

A 3,200-year-old tomb in Egypt that was explored briefly and then sealed last century after scientists concluded that it held little of value is instead turning out to be a window onto the reign of one of the most powerful kings of ancient Egypt, Ramses II, who some scholars believe allowed Moses to flee with the Israelites in search of the Promised Land.

It's 1:30 in the morning and the phone is ringing again at Kent Weeks' home. Someone has gotten his number and wants to ask about archeology or chat about ancient Egypt or give unwanted advice. It's been that way since his announcement in May that he had discovered Egypt's biggest Pharaonic tomb, believed to contain the sons of Ramses the Great. A year ago, Weeks was an obscure professor, but articles in magazines and television interviews changed that.

Egypt's Valley of Kings has been a hunting ground for Egyptologists, grave robbers and treasure hunters for 3,000 years. Here the ancient Egyptians buried their most illustrious pharaohs and, among them, the little-known Tutankhamun, whose undisturbed tomb first dazzled the world three-quarters of a century ago. Three millenniums of digging, curious tourists and rare floods or torrential rains have created an archeological nightmare, a jumble of ravaged tombs and lost burial places.

* Agencies: The William Morris Agency has made a discovery. It has signed noted archeologist Kent Weeks as a client, in what is no doubt the first signing of an Egyptologist by a Hollywood talent agency. Weeks, a professor at American University in Cairo, gained international fame last year when he led the discovery of a tomb containing the remains of sons of Ramses II. Weeks said he signed with the agency in part because he was inundated with inquires from people with projects in mind.

American archeologists have uncovered a Pharaonic-era tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the first uncovered there since King Tutankhamen's in 1922, Egypt's antiquities chief announced. The tomb's spare appearance suggests it was not dug for a pharaoh, said U.S. archeologist Kent Weeks, who was not involved in the University of Memphis team's find but has seen photographs of the site. "It could be the tomb of a king's wife or son, or of a priest or court official," he said Thursday.

Clay tablets uncovered in Egypt from the tomb of a king named Scorpion may represent the earliest known writing by humankind, an archeologist said Tuesday. If confirmed, the discovery would rank among the greatest ever in the search for the origins of the written word. But the subject the tablets mostly deal with may be of no surprise at all. It's taxes.

The Sphinx was built by aliens--silver-colored visitors from space, not workers from Nubia. Ramses' tomb was built by slave laborers who were killed after it was finished so that its location could not be revealed. The ancient Egyptians must have had access to high technology that has subsequently been lost, or they couldn't have moved the mammoths blocks used to construct the pyramids. These exotic notions have long colored our perception of the wonders to be found on the arid deserts of Egypt, but a series of new discoveries over the last decade have given the lie to all of them.

As a monument, its appearance is completely misleading: a narrow flight of stairs leading below ground to a still narrower door. To expose the stairs, archeologist Kent Weeks had to nibble away at the roadway covering it, and the pavement remains behind like a giant asphalt cookie with a bite taken out of it. Dotting the area are shabby huts where vendors hawk sodas and keepsakes to the tourists whose buses once unknowingly parked on top of the...

A 3,200-year-old tomb in Egypt that was explored briefly and then sealed last century after scientists concluded that it held little of value is instead turning out to be a window onto the reign of one of the most powerful kings of ancient Egypt, Ramses II, who some scholars believe allowed Moses to flee with the Israelites in search of the Promised Land.

"Legend says Egypt never produced such beauty. Her very name means perfection. Her face adorns temples throughout the land and yet she vanished from history like a mirage." So begins the Discovery Channel documentary "Nefertiti Resurrected," the record of Joann Fletcher and her 13-year quest to find the mummy of Egypt's fabled Queen Nefertiti.