Recently discovered artefacts on show in Cairo

(19 Apr 2018) LEADIN:
A new exhibition of recently discovered artefacts depicting Queen Cleopatra have gone on display in Cairo.
The archaeological exhibits were unearthed by a Dominican excavation team working near Alexandria.
STORYLINE:
Egypt Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani cuts a ribbon to inaugurate the latest exhibition at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The pieces on display were excavated by a Dominican archaeological mission which has been operating in Egypt for about ten years in the Taposiris Magna area in Alexandria.
The artefacts include statues, pottery and coins that relate to the lives of Queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony.
The exhibition displays 300 pieces showing life relating to the Ptolemaic period from 305 to 30 BC.
The last queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom was Queen Cleopatra who wooed the Roman general Marc Antony.
They both committed suicide after their defeat by Augustus Caesar.
Archaeologist, and former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Zahi Hawas says it's an important discovery.
"This exhibition today is a work of two teams from Egypt and the Dominican republic looking for queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony commentary and those archaeological excavations revealed more than 700 artefacts, the most important findings were statues of Queen Cleopatra and coins," he says.
The Head of the Dominican mission, Kathleen Martinez, believes that Cleopatra and Mark Antony were buried inside the temple of Isis and Osiris in the area of Taposiris Magna.
She says the artefacts discovered will help solve the mystery surrounding Cleopatra's burial.
"This stele is a confirmation of a theory that is important for the Taposiris Magna (area). This is the most important one and also we have inscriptions of the foundation of the temple, when the temple was built, exact year and we have important collection of coins depicting Queen Cleopatra and Alexander the Great," she says.
Archaeologists have been excavating sites in an attempt to solve a mystery that has puzzled historians for hundreds of years - where is the final resting place of doomed lovers Cleopatra and Mark Antony?
Cleopatra's palace and other buildings and monuments now lie strewn on the seabed in the harbour of Alexandria, the second largest city of Egypt.
Since 1994, archaeologists have been exploring the ruins, one of the richest underwater excavations in the Mediterranean, with some 6,000 artefacts.
Another 20,000 objects are scattered off other parts of Alexandria's coast.
In recent years, excavators have discovered dozens of sphinxes in the harbour, along with pieces of what is believed to be the Alexandria lighthouse.

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