The tomb of Thutmose II is the first pharaoh’s tomb to be discovered since Tutankhamun in 1922

It was when British archeologist Dr Piers Litherland saw that the ceiling of the burial chamber was painted blue with yellow stars that he realised he had just discovered the first tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh to be found in more than a century.

Litherland had been exploring the Valley of the Kings in Egypt for more than a decade when he discovered a staircase which led to the tomb, now known to have belonged to Thutmose II, who reigned from 1493 to 1479BC.