An archaeologist, Kathleen Martinez, has been on a mission to find the long-lost tomb of Cleopatra VII for nearly 20 years.

Now, she has made a “significant” discovery at a site believed to be her final resting place – a white marble statue that may depict the true face of the queen who ruled Egypt from 51 to 30 BC. 

The statue, which is just the head, features the likeness of a woman with a small nose, pouty lips and hair braided around the head. 

Martinez and her team of Egyptian and Dominican archaeologists also found 337 coins bearing the image of Cleopatra, along with an assortment of pottery, oil lamps, figurines and other artefacts at the Temple of Taposiris Magna. 

The expert has stood fast to her belief that the queen’s tomb has been hiding somewhere in the temple’s ruins, which sits atop a 1,300-metre-long tunnel, 13 metres underground. 

She believes that Cleopatra’s body was moved from the palace through the tunnel and buried at a secret location. 

Cleopatra is known not just because she was the queen of Egypt but also for her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Martinez believes that after Antony killed himself following his defeat to Caesar August (Octavian), Cleopatra put detailed plans in place for them both to be buried there. Cleopatra died on August 10 30BC. 

Other archaeologists, however, have suggested that the new statue depicts another royal woman, perhaps a princess, instead. 

Other notable findings include a scarab-shaped amulet inscribed with the phrase “The justice of Ra has shone”, a bronze ring dedicated to the goddess Hathor and ancient burial sites. 

Critics have also slammed her theory of the queen’s burial, arguing that Cleopatra was laid to rest in the city of Alexandria, not at the Temple of Taposiris, which lies 25 miles away.

Mohamad Ismail Khaled, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, has described the discovery as another “significant finding”, while the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has said that discoveries at Taposiris Magna are crucial for improving our understanding of the architectural, cultural and ceremonial practices of the time. 

In addition to the potential statue of Cleopatra, the team – in collaboration with the National University Pedro Henríquez Ureña – also unearthed a limestone bust of a king, adorned with the Nemes, the ceremonial headdress of the pharaohs. 

The researchers discovered a large cemetery containing an impressive 20 burial chambers and a tomb with three chambers beneath the Taposiris Magna lighthouse.

Martinez discovered the tunnel in 2022, which was said to resemble the Tunnel of Eupalinos on the Greek island of Samos – thought to be one of the most important engineering achievements of the Classical world.

The temple’s name means “great tomb of Osiris”, suggesting it was dedicated to the god Osiris and his queen – the goddess Isis – who Cleopatra was believed to be a reincarnation of. It is connected to a complex underground tunnel system that stretches from Lake Mariout to the Mediterranean Sea. 

In 2022, Martinez told Heritage Key: “If there’s a one percent chance  that the last queen of Egypt could be buried there, it is my duty to search for her.

“This is the first time that any archeologist has found tunnels, passages underground [and] inside the enclosure walls of the temple, so we have changed forever what they know about the architecture.”