Dr Kathleen Martinez, from the Dominican Republic, is an archaeologist and expert in Ancient Egypt. She is famous for her pioneering discoveries at Taposiris Magna, where she believes she has found the tomb of Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt. Martinez earned a law degree from her home country, but was fascinated from an early age with scholarly discussions about the life and times of Cleopatra. She became angry with the way Cleopatra had been portrayed through the ages, and was determined to find her mysterious tomb. “(Cleopatra) spoke nine languages, she was a philosopher, she was a poet, she was a politician, she was a goddess, and she was a warrior,” Martinez argues.
After ten years of research, Martinez was certain she had found the spot, in the ancient Alexandrian suburb of Taposiris Magna. And following a permit from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, she began searching with the aid of the country’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass. So far the search looks promising, with a large cache of Greco-Roman artefacts punctuating what many believe to be a royal burial.
