After long years of research and excavations, the top Egyptologist Zahi Hawass will announce at a special Wednesday conference that he has identified the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, a US-based Discovery Channel reported.

Hawass defined the mummy as "the most important find in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since the discovery of Tutankhamen" in 1922.

In 1903, archaeologist Howard Carter - who went on to become famous for his discovery of Tutankhamen - had discovered two sarcophagi in a tomb known as KV60 in the Theban necropolis, the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. One apparently contained the mummy of Hatshepsut's wet nurse Sitre-In and the other of an unknown female.

Later in 1920, he found the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut but the two sarcophagi that it contained were empty.

Discovery Channel, which is to air a documentary about the find, said that Hawass was able to narrow the search for Hatshepsut down to the two mummies discovered by Carter in 1903. He used CT scans to produce detailed 3D images and link distinct physical traits of one of the mummies to that of her ancestors.

Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, declined to comment, but Discovery quoted him as confirming the breakthrough.

Hatshepsut, daughter of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I, who ruled from 1504 to 1484 BC, was one of the most powerful female monarchs of the ancient world. After the death of her husband-brother Tuthmosis II, she reigned as regent for his son by a concubine, Tuthmosis III. But Hatshepsut soon declared herself as Pharaoh, donning royal headdress and a false beard.

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