Zahi Hawass

“Two hundred and fifty mummies covered in gold. Something like this cannot be explained - mummy after mummy covered in shining gold.”

“Anyone can like their job... To love your job is not enough, you must give your passion to your job.”

“It's very important to reveal the mystery of the pyramid. Science in archaeology is very important. People all over the world are waiting to solve this mystery.”

“I will reveal the secrets behind these doors.”

“I will announce some of the tombs I found next to the great pyramid of Khufu. One is an intact tomb that I have not opened yet.”

“It makes the heart to tremble when you open an undiscovered tomb.”

“As scientists, we keep an open mind, but we have to base our ideas about the past on archaeological evidence.”

“Not a single piece of material culture - not a single object - has been found at Giza that can be interpreted to come from a lost civilization.”

“Many parts of the granite statues were found, the most important of which had features close to Ramses II. The statue needs some restoration and weighs between four and five tons.”

“The sphinx will always have to be looked after.”

“I am damn good. I am doing all this for Egypt and nothing else. I reject 70 per cent of media interviews while these people who accuse me are running after them.”

“When we find something new at Giza, we announce it to the world. The Sphinx and the Pyramids are world treasures. We are the guardian's of these treasures, but they belong to the world.”

“I found in one of the tombs an inscription saying, 'If you touch my tomb, you will be eaten by a crocodile and hippopotamus.' It doesn't mean the hippo will eat you, it means the person really wanted his tomb to be protected.”

“We are the only ones who really can care about the preservation Foreigners who come to excavate, maybe some of them care about preservation, but the majority care about discoveries.”