DATE=05/06/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-289472

TITLE=EGYPT/PYRAMID (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=JAMES MARTONE

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Archeologists have discovered another pyramid in the Egyptian desert. The latest find is the 110th pyramid discovered in Egypt and, as James Martone reports from Cairo, is believed to be the tomb of a queen whose identity remains a mystery.

TEXT: Just a few kilometers north of Giza's famed pyramids, a team of Egyptian and Swiss archeologists has uncovered what appears to be the 45-hundred-year-old tomb of a queen.

The head of Egypt's Supreme Antiquities Council, Zahi Hawass, says the stone-block pyramid was next to that of Djedefre, the son of Cheops, who built the Great Pyramid at Giza.

/// HAWASS ACT ///

To the southeast of this pyramid, there was a mound of stone rubble sand. The expedition team found this new pyramid under the sand. The super structure of this pyramid is about six-feet high (about two meters), and the sub-structure has a tunnel. From this tunnel, there (were) three burial chambers; on one side they found remains of a lime stone sarcophagus.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Hawass says the newly discovered pyramid was probably robbed hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. He says no mummy was found in the pyramid, but that there are remains of canopic jars, the alabaster jars used to store organs removed from a body before it is mummified. Archeologists say more studies will have to be done to determine for sure who was buried in the tomb, but they have some clues.

Mr. Hawass says the name Cheops was found inscribed in hieroglyphics inside the tomb.

/// HAWASS ACT ///

I really do believe that there was once a queen, the wife of Djedefre, son of Cheops, buried inside this pyramid.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Hawass says he hopes further study will disclose for certain who was buried inside. Solving mysteries like these, he says, is part of the magic of Egypt. (Signed)

NEB/JM/KL/TW