Dr Mostafa Waziry is excited. One year after the centenary of the most famous archaeological find of all time – the treasure-laden tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun – the man in charge of Egypt’s antiquities says workers at Saqqara, the largest archaeological site in the country, are on the verge of another massively significant find.

“We are very close to finding the tomb of Imhotep, inshallah,” says Waziry, Egypt’s secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. That’s not Imhotep the libidinous priest from The Mummy movies, of course, but Imhotep the architect, who created the very first pyramid, the step pyramid of King Zoser, 4600 years ago and who in later eras was worshipped as a god.