As they peered into the newly cleared doorway, the discoverers of the Lost Tomb were well aware that the world was waiting for the first words on this remarkable discovery.

Over seventy years earlier the Egyptologist Howard Carter had waited expectantly in just such a fashion outside the nearby tomb of Tutankhamun. An eery blast of ancient air blew through the peephole in the sealed door.

"Well," asked his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, eagerly, "Can you see anything?"

As Carter’s eyes became accustomed to the dark, he saw mysterious shadowy shapes and a gleam that could only mean one thing: gold. "Yes," he replied, in unforgettable style, "wonderful things."

Seventy years on, knowing that this could be just such a moment, Bruce Ludwig, in the role of Carnarvon, asked the inevitable question: "Can you see anything?"

Kent Weeks, Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo and Director of the Theban Mapping Project, was more than equal to the task of providing a reply to go down in the annals of history. What he saw in front of him was not, however, the gold of the Pharaohs. And the scent that assailed his nose was not the ghostly remnant of ancient unguents and expensive oils poured lavishly at the funeral of a young king by his grieving family.

Professor Weeks’ equally memorable reply was of two words only, the second having just four letters but describing exactly the scene before him. A fractured sewage pipe intended to carry away waste from thousands of visiting tourists had in fact been quietly disposing of it for decades in this tomb. If anything describes the triumph and disaster of the archaeologist’s work, it is the description of this scene in his book. The public sees and hears of the glamour of discovery; the Egyptologist paddles away frantically behind the scenes, and not always in the cleanest of environments.

"Is there anything left to discover?" is a question that Egyptologists are asked on a regular basis. The answer comes unfailingly from Egypt herself as each year yields new finds, and new discoveries are made, sometimes on a prodigious scale. Experts continue to argue over the meaning of the quantity of material being given up by the sand of the desert and the silt of the Delta. Weeks, Ludwig and their team already had an idea that KV (Kings Valley) 5, the tomb that had suffered such unfortunate treatment, could prove extraordinary.

The Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, ancient Thebes, however, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Surely this site of tombs cut into the rock, where the New Kingdom monarchs of ancient Egypt hoped to spend eternity relatively unmolested by grave robbers, had no more surprises left?

While the world waits for dramatic discoveries and the "gleam of gold", the Egyptologist works away behind the scenes on projects which might seem boring to the layman, but without which the big discoveries will be meaningless. Like the scribes of ancient Egypt, modern Egyptologists record, and record and record.

KV 5 was rediscovered as a result of Kent Weeks’ recognition of the pressing need to map the Theban necropolis, the huge area on the west bank of the Nile where not only kings but their families, and the workmen of the royal tombs, were buried in separate areas. The story of this mapping is an adventure in itself, and now the balloons used for the work are a regular feature as they soar up into the hot clear blue Theban sky to view the valleys below.

Remarkably, even in this valley, so popular with both experts and visitors alike, thirteen tombs known in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had simply "gone missing". KV 5 was one such; its entrance was possibly known as early as 1738, long before Egyptology was established as an academic subject, when the tomb was marked on a map.

In 1825 it had been entered by early Egyptologist James Burton, who had workmen remove enough debris to let him crawl inside and note that there were several chambers. And now, after further work on clearing the entrance and the first and second chamber, Kent Weeks and his colleague Dr Catharine Roehrig of the Metropolitan Museum in New York were about to do the same thing.

The first chamber had yielded tantalising information that suggested a connection with the great king Ramesses II and his sons. In fact, it was looking increasingly likely that the tomb was the last resting-place of at least some of his numerous children.

Professor Weeks is a tall and strongly built man, whose approach to his subject and to the tomb makes it evident that the spirit of adventure and enthusiasm of the first explorers of the Valley is still alive and well. What he and his colleague were about to investigate was a large hall almost blocked with debris through and over which they had to crawl.

"At this point," recounts Professor Weeks, "my feet were atop the debris in chamber 3, my stomach fifty centimetres lower, my head was twisted painfully into the tiny space between the fill and the ceiling of the next chamber, sharp stone chips cut into my cheek and I was bent nearly backwards in a U-shape." For the first time ever, he suffered claustrophobia.

Bats, scorpions, snakes, and diseases; all part of the excavating Egyptologist’s everyday life. But there is something about suffocation, however, which is too close to the subject, too reminiscent of the tomb. It is almost as though the inhabitants of the tombs they investigate will have the last laugh. On this occasion, he was pulled clear by his workman, Mohammed, "thanks to God!" The success of the excavation and investigation is due to a large and skilled team, and some of the people involved can be met through the medium of the website pages (www.kv5.com).

At present, Weeks estimates, KV5 will provide work for "a couple of centuries!" The room that proved so forbidding to access is now a cleared and supported 16-pillared hall, and the final count of chambers off the hall and corridors may be over 200. Further evidence in the form of inscriptions has proved that this was to be the last resting-place of the majority of Ramesses’ sons. Like most of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, however, it has suffered its share of robbery and water damage.

At the end of one corridor the excavators have discovered a carved figure of Osiris, God of the Dead, presiding over the afterlife of the children of one of Egypt’s most famous monarchs. All Egyptian kings viewed their tombs as "Houses of Eternity", where they would spend their days much as they had done in life, but in an eternity free from disease and other threats. Once a king in Egypt, always a king; in life the king was Horus, in death, he became Osiris.

Objects and fragmentary inscriptions from the tomb have confirmed that this tomb was intended for a number, if not all of Ramesses’ numerous children by his principal wives, including the beautiful Nefertari (whose own remarkable tomb is visited by thousands each year), and Isis-Nofret. Names containing the Egyptian form nfr (beautiful), such as Nefertiti, Nefertari and Nofret indicate the special regard in which these women were held.

And Ramesses was a potent man, fathering at least thirty sons and over twenty daughters by his principal and secondary wives. The number produced by minor wives and palace concubines is unknown, but estimates of over 100 do not seem unreasonable.

In this tomb, Amun-her-khepeshef, ("Amun-is with his Strong Arm"), Ramesses the younger, Mentu-her-khepeshef, (Mentu is with his Strong Arm), Sety, and Merenptah, who would become his father’s heir apparent, could hope to spend a comfortable eternity with their full and half-brothers. So far, inscriptions for 16 of these important sons have been found.

The tomb has yielded fragments of pottery and alabaster, and the little statues known as ushabti. These images had a practical function; the Egyptians believed that after death they would come magically to life to perform any tasks that needed to be done. Also, tantalisingly, stone finishing pieces for yoke poles, suggesting that chariots may have been included amongst the undoubtedly rich grave goods provided for these sons of the great and charismatic Ramesses II. It is on record that some of his sons were charioteers for their father.