Early Western Civilization Egyption Tomb 5 Egyptologists had lost interest in the site of tomb 5, which had been explored
                    and looted decades ago. Therefore, they wanted to give way to a parking lot. However, no one would have ever known
                    the treasure that lay only 200 ft. from King Tuts resting place which was beyond a few rubble strewn rooms that
                    previous excavators had used to hold their debris. Dr. Kent Weeks, an Egyptologist with the American University in
                    Cairo, wanted to be sure the new parking facility wouldnt destroy anything important. Thus, Dr. weeks embarked in
                    1988 on one final exploration of the old dumping ground. Eventually he was able to pry open a door blocked for
                    thousands of years, and announced the discovery of a life time. "We found ourselves in a corridor," he remembers. "On
                    each side were 10 doors and at end there was a statue of Osiris, the god of the afterlife." The tomb is mostly unexcavated
                    and the chambers are choked with debris, Weeks is convinced that there are more rooms on a lower level, bringing the
                    total number to more than 100. That would make tomb 5 the biggest and most complex tomb ever found in Egypt, and
                    quite conceivable the resting place of up to 50 sons of Ramesses II, perhaps the best known of all the pharaohs, the ruler
                    believed to have been Mosesnemesis in the book of Exodus. The Valley of the Kings, in which Tomb 5 is located, is just
                    across the Nile River from Luxor, Egypt. It is never exactly been off the beaten track. Tourism has been brisk in the
                    valley for millenniums: graffiti scrawled on tomb walls proves that Greek and Roman travelers stopped here to gaze at the
                    wall paintings and hieroglyphics that were already old long before the birth of Christ. Archaeologists have been coming
                    for centuries too. Napoleon brought his own team of excavators when he invaded in 1798, and a series of expeditions in
                    19th and early 20th centuries uncovered one tomb after another. A total of 61 burial spots had been found by the time the
                    British explorer Howard Carter opened the treasure-laden tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922. Britains James Burton
                    had burrowed into the site of Tomb 5 in 1820, and decided that there was nothing inside. A dismissive Carter used its
                    entryway as a place to dump the debris he was hauling out of Tuts tomb. In the late 1980s, came the proposed parking
                    area and Weeks concern. His 1988 foray made it clear that the tomb wasnt dull as Burton said. Elaborate carvings
                    covered walls and referred to Ramesses II, whose own tomb was just 100 ft. away. The wall inscriptions on the
                    companion crypt mentioned two of Ramesses52 known sons, implying some of the royal offspring might have been
                    buried within. Then, came last months astonishing announcement. For treasure, the tomb probably wont come to close
                    to Tuts because robbers apparently plundered the chamber long time ago. No gold or fine jewelry has been found so far,
                    and Weeks does not expect to find any riches to speak of. The carvings and inscriptions Weeks and his friends have
                    seen, along with thousands of artifacts such as beads, fragments of jars that were used to store the organs of the
                    deceased, and mummified body parts which tell historians a great amount about ancient Egypt during the reign of its most
                    important king. "Egyptians do not call him Ramesses II," Sabry Abd El Aziz, director of antiquities for the Qurna region
                    said. " We call him Ramesses al-Akbar which means Ramesses the Great." During his 67 years on the throne stretching
                    from 1279 B.C. to 1212 B. C., Ramesses could have filled an ancient edition of the Guinness Book of Records all by
                    himself: he built more temples, obelisks and monuments; took more wives(eight, not counting concubines) and claimed to
                    have sired more children (as many as 162, by some accounts) than any other pharaoh in history. He presided over an
                    empire that stretched from present-day Libya to Iraq in the east, as far north as Turkey and southward into the Sudan.
                    Today, historians know a great deal about Ramesses and the customs of his day. However, the newly explored tomb
                    suddenly presents scholars with all sort of puzzles to ponder. For one thing, many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings
                    are syringe-like, plunging straight as a needle into the steep hillsides. For reasons nobody yet knows, says Weeks, this
                    one "is more like an octopus, with a body surrounded by tentacles." The body in this case is an enormous square room, at
                    least 50 ft. on a side and divided by 16 massive columns. In Ramesses day the room would have seemed positively
                    cavernous; now it is filled nearly to the top with rubble washed in over the centuries by infrequent flash floods. Anyone
                    who wants to traverse the chamber has to crawl through a tight passage, lighted by a string of dim electric light bulbs
                    where the dirt has been painstakingly cleared away. At the end of his claustrophobic journey lies the door Weeks found,
                    and the relatively spacious corridors beyond. It is here, as well as in two outermost rooms that the artifacts were
                    discovered. Weeks says, "The tomb was pretty well gone over in ancient times." The archaeologists have tracked down a
                    record of one of those robberies which in about 1150 B.C. A 3,000 year old papyrus fragment housed in a museum in
                    Turin, Italy which recounts the trial of a thief who was caught in the Valley of the Kings. He confessed under torture that
                    he had broken into Ramesses IIs tomb and then returned the next night to rob the tomb of Ramesseschildren, which
                    across the path. Additional artifacts could lie buried if, as Weeks believes, the tomb had unusual split level design. The
                    ceilings of the corridors to the left and right of the statue of Osiris slope downward and then drop abruptly about 4 ft.
                    Moreover, the doors that line the corridors all lead to identical 10 ft. by 10 ft. chambers. The openings are only about 2.5
                    ft. wide which is too narrow to accommodate a princes sarcophagus. That suggests to Weeks that the rooms werent
                    burial chambers but rather chapels for funeral offerings. Hieroglyphics above each painting make it clear that the
                    pharaohs firs, second, seventh, and 15th sons were buried in Tomb 5. Many of the engravings show Ramesses
                    presenting one or another of the newly deceased young men to Re-Harakhty, the god of the sun; Horus, the falcon
                    headed god of the sky; or Hathor, goddes of motherhood, who is often depicted as a cow. These scenes reflect the belief
                    that pharaohs were demigods while alive and that life was merely a short term way station on the road to full deity.
                    Anything that researchers learn in Tomb 5 about Ramessesoldest son, Amen-hir-khopshef, could be especially significant
                    to religion scholars. Cautions Weeks: " Im not saying that we will prove the validity of the Bible,but scholars are hungry
                    for any new information about this crucial time in Judeo-Christian history." The great buildings boom got under way as
                    soon as Ramesses took throne at age 25, right after he discovered that the great temple his father Seti I had begun at
                    Abydos was a shambles. The new pharaoh summoned his coursties to hear his plans for completing the work. Then, he
                    went on to built dozens of monuments, including a temple at Luxor and Karnak and the cliff temples at Abu Simbel which
                    were rescued from waters rising behind the Aswan Dam in the 1960s. In an age when life expectancy could not have
                    been much more than 40, it must have seemed to his subjects that Ramesses would never die. At 92, the pharaoh went to
                    join his ancestors and some of his sons in the Valley of the Kings. His internal organs were removed and placed in vessels
                    known as canopic jars, and the body was embalmed and gently wrapped in cloth. Archaeologists found that the
                    embalmers has even stuffed peppercorns into the monarchs nostrils to keep his aquiline nose from being flattened by the
                    wrappings. Ramesses was then placed in a sarcophagus and interred, along with everything he would need to travel
                    through the afterlife: The Book of the Dead, containing spells that would give the pharaoh access to the netherworld; tiny
                    statuettes known as Ushabti, which would come alive to help the dead king perform labors for the gods; offering of food
                    and wine; jewelry and even furniture to make the afterlife more comfortable. Its likely, say scholars that Ramesses IIs
                    tomb was originally far richer and more elaborate than King Tuts. Unlike several other tombs in the valley, Ramesseshas
                    never been fully excavated. A French team is clearing it now, and the entire tomb could be ready for visitors within five
                    years, but it is not expected to offer archaeologists any surprises. Tomb 5 is a completly different story. Weeks says " We
                    have never found a multiple burial of a pharaohs children. We have no idea at all what happened to the most of the
                    pharaohs children." Archaeologists either have to assume that Ramesses II buried his children in a unique way, or they
                    have to consider the possibility that theyve overlooked a major type of royal tomb. Archaelogists still havent resolved
                    many basic questions about Tomb 5; when the tomb was built, over what priod of time it was used. Some answers could
                    pop up as the excavations progress. Says Weeks " Lets hope the tomb yields a whole lot of new bodies. Then, medicos
                    can get to work on them, and find out what therse princes were like, whether they had toothaches, how long they lived."
                    Weeksteam plans to return to Tomb 5 for the month of July. Their goal is to get enough inside to explore the staircases
                    and lower level. Weeks stimates that it will take at least five years to study and map the entire tomb, protect the
                    decorations, install climate controls and electricity and shore up the precarious sections. Says Abdel Halim Nur el Din,
                    secretary-general of egypts Supreme Council of Antiquites: " Were in no hurry to open this tomb to the public. We
                    already have 10 or 12 that they can visit." It is more improtant to preserve the tombs that have already been excavated,
                    say the Egyptians, than make new ones accessible. The recent find gives scholars hope that more can be discovered even
                    in this most explored of Egypts archaeological sites. Notes the antiquities departments Abd El Aziz: " We still havent
                    found the tombs of Amenhotep I or Ramesses VIII," he says. " We have 62 tombs in the Valley of the Kings, but in the
                    Western Valley, which runs perpendicular to it, we have discovered only two tombs. The pharaohs would be pleased to
                    know they have held on to a few of their secrets. After all, they dug their tombs deep into hillsides, where the crypts
                    would be safe from the rabble and robbers. However, they never counted on was the need for parking lots 