During my recent season with the Oxford Expedition to Egypt working in the tomb of Kagemni, I was most fortunate to be invited to inspect the recently discovered tomb of Old Kingdom vizier Merefnebef. Walking south-west past the pyramid of Userkaf and through his mortuary temple, passing the htp altar of Djoser, I dropped down behind the sand drifts to reach the tents of the Polish Centre of Archaeology in Cairo.

I was introduced to the Field Director, Prof. Karol Mysliwiec, a charming man who introduced me to his team of 8 archaeologists and his workmen, currently clearing 24 burial pits above Merefnebef's tomb with great hopes of discovering a complete burial- only time will tell. After explaining his exciting find in detail, he led me down to this VIth dynasty tomb of a previously unattested vizier Merefnebef from the reign of King Teti. The first thing that struck me was the narrowness of the tomb entrance, only large enough for an average-sized person to enter; I feel sure that this will prevent it being opened to the public, since such wear and tear would destroy the wall scenes.

These superb reliefs still retaining their original stunning colours are in a fragile state. Prof. Mysliwiec spoke of the great weight of responsibility in conserving the scenes, some of which are quite unique. His expert team were cramped in very difficult conditions, but all were very excited about their work. On the west wall of the inner chamber are two false doors, a magnificent raised relief on the entrance passage showing Merefnebef and a lady named Meresankh, who despite her prominent position was not one of his five wives mentioned elsewhere in the tomb - a mystery, hopefully to be unravelled. I asked Prof.Mysliwiec about Merefnebef's burial shaft, which at present is still bricked up; this raises hopes of an intact burial, and they will have to remove the wall next season to investigate further.

After leaving the tomb via a wooden staircase built for the recent visit of Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak - such is the importance of the find - I was taken to one of the dig tents and shown a magnificent false door, smashed in antiquity but a thing of great beauty, painted white with dark blue hieroglyphs - a superb piece of artistic expression. One of Professor Mysliwiec's assistants was reconstructing it on the floor, and we could make out the owner's name, one 'Tetiankh'.

I have never known a few hours go so quickly, and it was soon time to return to my work in the tomb of Kagemni. On my way back I paid a visit to the sadly deteriorating tomb of Isesiankh, most of the colour of the false door gone but now thankfully sanding up again, for future generations to discover.

Although the preliminary tomb publication 'Nowe oblicza Sakkary' is only available in Polish(!), for further reading see Prof. Mysliwiec's article in the EES Bulletin 'Egyptian Archaeology' 13, p.37-39.