He has sent robots into the Great Pyramid of Khufu, restored the Sphinx and discovered a horde of golden-masked mummies, yet archaeologist Dr Zahi Hawass, in Dublin for a series of lectures, reckons 70 per cent 0f Egypt's treasures have yet to be unearthed, writes Judith Crosbie

For someone who as a youth never wanted to become an archeologist, Dr Zahi Hawass has come a long way. The chances are, if you have read an article or watched a television programme about recent discoveries from ancient Egypt you will have come across the gregarious doctor.

He is responsible for the excavation of the Valley of the Golden Mummies, discovered in 1996, containing thousands of mummies covered in elaborately designed golden masks. He was in charge of a 10-year restoration of the Sphinx, undoing much of the damage caused by previous restoration, when cement was used on the monument. His discovery and excavation of the tombs of the pyramid builders has broadened knowledge of how the pyramids were built and who the builders were.

A project last September, beamed live around the world, involved him sending a robot into a shaft in the Great Pyramid of Khufu to discover what secrets lay behind a sealed door. It is this project which will be the topic at one of two lectures he will deliver in Dublin tomorrow and Friday.

At 55, Dr Hawass has taught and conducted public lectures at universities throughout the world. He has written several books about his finds and has made numerous appearances on US television networks to explain his work in layman's terms. Last year, he was appointed secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, giving him control over all excavations and monuments in Egypt, and a story by Dr Hawass features on the cover of this month's National Geographic.

Those who go along to the lectures need not worry that they will be baffled by archeological terms as Dr Hawass believes the Egyptian finds are for everyone.

"The Egyptian culture does not belong to us it belongs to everyone," he says. "You cannot have scholars who are sitting in rooms doing nothing except writing articles that no one can understand. When the public were not reached [by archaeologists\] they were talking about people coming out of space [to build the pyramids\] and they had many speculations. But now because we reach them they do now know about many important things, we have educated the public. Wherever I go, people stop me to ask me questions about the Pharaohs. This tells you people have begun to understand."

Here, Dr Hawass touches on a nerve which has pained him during his career, the conspiracy theorists who accuse him of covering up evidence of a lost civilisation and alien activity in the building of the pyramids.

He tells how one such theorist visited him in his home and asked if he could take pictures of his toilet as there was speculation he had a tunnel leading to the pyramids, from where he could work unnoticed.

As a result, Dr Hawass is in no doubt about the most important discovery he has made: "For me, \ was the tombs of the pyramid builders because it came in a time when everyone was saying the people who built the pyramids came from space.

"People used to attack me and say the pyramids were built by people from a lost civilisation and things like that. Then this discovery came at a time when I needed to show the public evidence about the people who built the pyramids."

But the project which made him the most recognisable Egyptologist was the Valley of the Golden Mummies. Over three years after excavations were carried out on one of the largest intact tomb of mummies, it still attracts attention.

"\ is the discovery that everyone is talking about, people love gold. When children write to me they call me 'mummy hunter'. It shows how people are really interested in mummies."

Hawass continues to work on the project and is currently excavating around the home of the governor of the region, which was an important wine-producing area in its time.

Another project he continues to work on is the inner shaft of the Great Pyramid. The build-up to last September's live broadcast of the tiny robot's mission into the shaft was brought down to earth when all that was discovered behind the first door was another sealed door. Subsequent investigations reveal there is yet another door after that.

Although the event was reported widely as a failure Hawass says this is not the case. "I was not disappointed. I had in my mind from the beginning that nothing would ever be discovered behind this door but when I discovered a second door and a third door it's a very important discovery.

"To discover an empty place inside the great pyramid is very important. This discovery made me more excited: what is the door hiding? Is it the burial chamber of the king, or are they doors the king will open to go to the afterlife? All of this we need to understand."

After completing such projects Hawass will not be concerned that he will run out of archaeological finds to keep him occupied as he estimates only 30 per cent of ancient Egypt's monuments have been discovered and the rest remain hidden under the ground.

A few times a year he may discover something new which adds another piece to the jigsaw of what life was like in Egypt thousands of years ago.

He remains passionate about every find: "What I discover is something new. There is nothing the same and this is why I never lose the excitement. I'm a lucky man, whenever I dig in some place I discover something. When I discover a statue and I hold the statue in my hand it's like holding your first child, something no one can really explain: that you are the first person to ever see a statue that no one has ever seen."

This passion goes beyond excavating for reminders of ancient Egypt and into protecting monuments above the ground. But this can be difficult when thousands of people wish to travel to Egypt to see them.

"Tourism is very bad for archaeology but tourism is very good for the economy of Egypt. I am trying to accommodate the needs of tourism and the preservation of the monuments," he says.

This he does by closing some tombs and opening others. The three pyramids at Giza are managed so that two are always open, while one is closed.

No more than 300 visitors are allowed to enter the pyramids each day and aircraft are no longer allowed to fly over them. When the Great Pyramid at Khufu was closed in 1998 for restoration, 2 centimetres of salt, caused by perspiration and breathing from visitors, was found on the walls inside. The salt was slowly destroying the plaster covering the walls.

"We are doing site management programmes for all major sites in Egypt. Site management is how to manage by protecting the sites from tourists, move the parking lots outside, try to have sidewalks for the tourists to go through, not to touch the monuments, have restoration everywhere."

Sadly, another of Dr Hawass's predictions is that in 100 years, if not sooner, the pyramids, the Sphinx and all other monuments from ancient Egypt will be gone, worn away by pollution and the endless stream of people visiting them.

This he sends out as a stark warning to those involved in tourism: "The Tomb of King Tut gets 4,000 visitors a day. In 10 years it will be gone. People all over the world have to be aware of what is going to happen to these monuments."

Dr Hawass will talk on "The Secrets of the Valley of the Golden Mummies" in the Edmund Burke lecture hall in the Arts Block of Trinity College Dublin at 8 p.m. on Thursday. Admission is €6, half price for the unwaged and senior citizens and entry is free for staff and students of TCD. On Friday, Dr Hawass will lecture on "The Secret of the Pyramid of Khufu" at 1 p.m. in the National Museum, Kildare St. Admission is free.

Further lectures by other academics and archaeologists in the series "From the Pharaohs to Mohammed" will take place this month and in February and March.

For more information, phone 01-6081297.