Egypt’s oldest pyramid has been saved from ruin by a group of British engineers, who likened the challenge to a “massive game of Kerplunk”.

The step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, known as the step pyramid, had been unstable since a massive earthquake in 1992 and was in danger of collapse at any moment.

To the rescue came an unlikely team of saviours from Newport, south Wales, who inadvertently uncovered a sarcophagus buried deep under debris in its burial chamber.

Cintec, founded by Peter James, won the £1.8million contract due to the unique methods it has developed restoring historic buildings, including Windsor Castle, the White House and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem as well as several projects in Egypt.

Over a period of almost a decade, with a three year hiatus due to the Arab Spring, the team has managed to stabilise the 62-metre high pyramid on the Nile's west bank near Cairo, using giant airbags and some wire mesh left over from a previous project at Westminster Abbey.

During the course of their work, the team came across the resting place of Pharaoh Djoser, who ruled around 2700 BC, deep within a partially collapsed eight-metre squared burial chamber.