Secrets of the valley

They have lain undisturbed in their pitch black resting place 16ft underground for more than three millennia. The five mummies in wooden sarcophagi and coloured funeral masks from the 18th pharaonic dynasty were found in the first tomb to be unearthed in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since that of King Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922.

Entombed around them in the underground chamber measuring 4 by 5 metres are 20 sealed clay jars likely containing food and wine.

Remarkably the first discovery of a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor for 84 years was made by accident at the end of last year while American archaeologists were investigating the previously known tomb of 19th-dynasty pharaoh King Amenmesses.

Beneath workmen's huts from this tomb they found a deep pit leading to a narrow shaft which in turn led to the stone doorway.

The door was partially opened last week to reveal the simple burial place believed to be from the first dynasty of the New Kingdom which ruled between 1539BC and 1292BC and had its capital in Thebes, the present city of Luxor.

One of the coffins has toppled towards the door showing its white painted face while another is partially open, showing a brown cloth covering the mummy inside.

The tomb, the 63rd discovered since the valley was first mapped in the 18th century, was found just yards from that of Tutankhamun, the boy king who became the best known of ancient Egypt's pharaohs despite dying in his teens, and whose resting place was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in November 1922.

Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's supreme council of antiquities, said: "Maybe they are mummies of kings or queens or nobles, we don't know. But it's definitely someone connected to the royal family."

"It could be the gardener," joked Otto Schaden, the head of the US team, from the University of Memphis.

"But it's somebody who had the favour of the king because not everybody could make their tomb in the Valley of the Kings."

The discovery has shown that despite the use of the latest imaging technology and the visits of dozens of archaeologists, the long-held belief that there is nothing left to excavate in the Valley of the Kings is mistaken.