First Pharaoh's tomb found in over 100 years

Egyptologists have discovered the tomb of an ancient pharaoh for the first time in a hundred years.

The tomb belongs to King Thutmose II, and was the last undiscovered tomb of the 18th Egyptian dynasty.

It is also the first tomb of a pharaoh found since the tomb of Tutankhamun's was discovered in 1922.

A British-Egyptian team located the tomb near the city of Luxor in the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis.

The crew discovered the tomb in an area that was previously thought to be a resting place for royal women only

Researchers found the tomb more than 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from where they had thought the burial chambers of the 18th dynasty pharaohs would be.

The tomb was found in an area that has previously been associated to be the resting place of royal women.

However, when they got into the burial chamber they found it had been decorated - a sign that it belonged to a pharaoh.

"Part of the ceiling was still intact: a blue-painted ceiling with yellow stars on it. And blue-painted ceilings with yellow stars are only found in kings' tombs," said the field director of the mission Dr Piers Litherland.

The archaeologists had to crawl through a 10m passageway to get to the chamber

Archaeologists working in the site said that it took them a long time to get to the tomb itself.

Dr Litherland said the tomb had a "large staircase and a very large descending corridor" and was blocked by rubble and collapsed ceilings.

"It was only after crawling through a 10 metre (32 feet) passageway that had a small 40 centimetre gap at the top that we got into the burial chamber." said Dr Litherland.

What a discovery!

Who was King Thutmose II?

Wife of Thutmose, Hatshepsut Ancient Egyptian queen of the 18th dynasty, is seen as one of Egypt's greatest ancient pharaohs

Thutmose II is thought to have ruled three and a half thousand years ago from about 1493 to 1479 BC.

He was actually an ancestor of Tutankhamun whose tomb was found by a British archaeologist in 1922.

Thutmose II is best known for being the husband of Queen Hatshepsut.

Queen Hatshepsut was regarded as one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs - she was one of the few female pharaohs who ruled in her own right.