Archaeologists search for Cleopatra, Mark Antony's tombs

Archaeologists in Egypt may be on track to solve a mystery linked to two of history's greatest lovers as researchers move to unearth the final resting place of Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

The excavation could answer number of myths including speculation about the Egyptian queens reputed beauty and the couples suicide.

In most depictions, Cleopatra is put forward as a great beauty and her successive conquests of the world's most powerful men is taken to be proof of her aesthetic and sexual appeal. However, researchers at Britain's University of Newcastle in 2007 had poured cold water on the beauty of the Egyptian seductress.

Now archaeologists looking for the final resting place of the celebrated queen of Egypt and the Roman general will begin excavating three sites at the temple of Tabusiris Magna near the Mediterranean Sea where tombs may be located, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement.

Cleopatra and Mark Antony, whose relationship was later immortalized by William Shakespeare and then in a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, could have been buried in a deep shaft in the temple, the council said. The three sites were identified last month during a radar survey of the temple, Times online reported on Thursday.

As Pharaoh, Cleopatra consummated a liaison with Gaius Julius Caesar that solidified her grip on the throne. After Caesar's assassination, she aligned with lover Antony. After Antony and Cleopatra were defeated at Actium by their rival Cleopatra committed suicide.

Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt's Superior Council for Antiquities, said that there was evidence to suggest that the two lovers were buried together in the complex tunnel system underlying the Tabusiris Magna temple, 17 miles from the city of Alexandria, the British daily's online edition reported on Thursday.

Kathleen Martnez, an Egyptologist from the Dominican Republic who is working on the excavation, said that the writing of Roman chroniclers indicated that the two were buried together.

The discovery that ten mummies of nobles were buried at the site had strengthened evidence that Antony and Cleopatra could be close, she was quoted as saying.

Dr Hawass, who first suggested the temple as the possible burial site of the couple nearly three years ago, has called the possible discovery of Antony and Cleopatra's tomb "bigger than that of King Tutankhamun's tomb", which was discovered in 1922.

However, many experts suggest caution. John Baines, an Egyptologist with Oxford University in England questioned why Augustus, who defeated Antony, would have chosen such a distinguished burial place.

"Its unlikely Mark Antony would have a tomb that anyone would be able to discover because he was the enemy at the time he died," Baines told The Times last year.