Cairo  - Archaeologists from Egypt and the Dominican Republic will excavate three sites next week in search of the tomb of Antony and Cleopatra, Egyptian officials announced Wednesday.

Archaeologists have been excavating the temple of Taposiris Magna, roughly 50 kilometres west of the Egyptian Mediterranean city of Alexandria, for three years, Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities said Wednesday.

The presence of 27 tombs dating to the 1st Century BC near the temple made them believe that it may have been a royal burial site. A recent radar survey of the grounds revealed three likely locations for the tomb, archaeologists said.

Egypt's Queen Cleopatra VII and Roman tribune Marc Antony, one of history's most storied couples, committed suicide in 30 BC, shortly after a Roman navy thwarted their bid for control of the Roman Empire at the Battle of Actium.