CLEOPATRA’S TOMB FOUND?

A FLAMBOYANT archeologist known worldwide for his trademark Indiana Jones hat believes he has identified the site where Cleopatra is buried.

Now, with a team of 12 archeologists and 70 excavators, Zahi Hawass, 60, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has started searching for the entrance to her tomb.

And after a breakthrough two weeks ago, he hopes to find her lover, the Roman general Mark Antony, sharing her last resting place at the site of a temple, the Taposiris Magna, 45km west of Alexandria.

Dr Hawass has discovered a 140m tunnel beneath the temple containing clues that the supposedly beautiful queen may lie beneath.

"We've found tunnels with statues of Cleopatra and many coins bearing her face, things you wouldn't expect in a typical temple," he said.

A fortnight ago, Dr Hawass's team discovered a bust of Mark Antony, the Roman general who became Cleopatra's lover and had three children with her before their ambitions for an Egyptian empire brought them into conflict with Rome.

They committed suicide - he with his sword, she reputedly by clutching an asp to her breast - after being defeated by Octavian in the battle of Actium in 31BC.

"Our theory is that both are buried here," Dr Hawass said.

Other experts are cautious, though. John Baines, professor of Egyptology at Oxford University, warned that searching for royal tombs often proved a "hopeless" task.

He also doubted that Mark Antony would be buried alongside his lover.

"It's unlikely Mark Antony would have a tomb that anyone would be able to discover because he was the enemy at the time he died," he said.

The Sunday Times