Credit: Khaled El-Fiqi/EPA/Shutterstock
(CNN) --
Kathleen Martinez, an archaeologist at the University of Santo Domingo, has been searching for the lost tomb of Cleopatra for nearly 20 years.
She now believes that she has made a crucial breakthrough.
Martínez and his team discovered a 1,305-meter tunnel, located 13 meters underground, as recently announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, an architectural design that experts described as an "engineering miracle."
"The excavation revealed a huge religious center with three sanctuaries, a sacred lake, more than 1,500 objects, busts, statues, gold pieces, a huge collection of coins representing Alexander the Great, Queen Cleopatra and the Ptolemies," Martinez said. to CNN.
Kathleen Martinez discovered a tunnel that could lead to the lost tomb.
Credit: Kathleen Martinez-Nazar/Taposiris Magna Project
"The most interesting discovery is the complex of tunnels leading to the Mediterranean Sea and the sunken structures," he added.
The exploration of these underwater structures will be the next stage in his search for the lost tomb of the Egyptian queen, a journey he began in 2005.
"My perseverance cannot be confused with obsession. I admire Cleopatra as a historical figure. She was a victim of Roman propaganda, which sought to distort her image," Martinez said.
"She was a cultured woman, probably the first to formally study at the Alexandria Museum, the center of culture in her time," according to Martinez, who said she admired Cleopatra as a student, linguist, mother and philosopher.
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When her husband, the Roman general Antony, died in her arms in 30 BC, Cleopatra took her own life shortly afterward by letting an asp bite her, according to popular belief.
The moment has been immortalized in art and literature, but, more than two millennia later, little is known about where her remains lie.
Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra and Richard Burton as Mark Antony.
Credit: Twentieth Century Fox
A series of clues led Martínez to believe that Cleopatra's tomb could be located in the Temple of Osiris, in the ruined city of Taposiris Magna, on the north coast of Egypt, where the Nile River joins the Mediterranean.
Chief among them was the name itself.
According to Martínez, Cleopatra was considered in her time "the human incarnation of the goddess Isis", just as Antonio was of the god Orisis, husband of Isis.
Martinez believes that Cleopatra may have chosen to bury her husband in the temple to reflect this myth.
Of all the 20 temples around Alexandria that she has studied, Martinez said, "no other place, structure or temple combines as many conditions as the Taposiris Magna temple."
Excavations carried out so far have unearthed more than 1,500 ancient objects.
Credit: Egyptian Ministry of Tourism
In 2004, Martínez took his theory to Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist who was then Egypt's minister of antiquities.
His project was approved a year later.
And after years of searching, Martinez thinks he's getting closer.
Excavations carried out so far have revealed that "the temple was dedicated to Isis", which Martínez believes is another sign that the lost tomb is nearby, as well as the tunnels under the sea.
The search for the lost tomb has taken Martínez under the Mediterranean Sea.
Credit: Kathleen Martinez-Nazar/Taposiris Magna Project
Now, Martínez said, he is at "the beginning of a new journey": underwater excavations.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Egyptian coastline has been hit by earthquakes over the centuries, causing parts of the Tamposiris Magna to collapse and sink beneath the waves.
That will be the site where Martinez and his team will look next.
Although it is "too early to know where these tunnels lead," he is hopeful.
If the tunnels lead to Cleopatra, "it will be the most important discovery of the century," he said.
EgyptPharaohs of Egypt