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Highclere Castle is best known as the set of hit period drama Downton Abbey.

But the aristocratic Carnarvon family who live at the Berkshire country house are hoping to attract visitors for a different reason.

Ninety years ago, in the Valley of the Kings, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter broke down the gold wall into the Shrine Room in the tomb of Tutankhamun, discovering a wall of gold.

To mark the anniversary of that achievement, a visitor attraction has been created in the cellars of Highclere Castle to give an impression of what was found in November 1922.

The Egyptian Exhibition contains replicas from the tombs, including the pharaoh’s middle coffin and his death mask.

At the exhibition’s launch, the Countess of Carnarvon said: “This is the defining thing for Highclere. Downton is lovely, but it will come and go.”

She went on: “The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb is the greatest archaeological discovery ever.

“I want people to feel they’re inside the tomb and they have a sense of history.”

Ashraf El Kholy, the Egyptian Ambassador to the UK, described the exhibition as a beautiful piece of art and culture.

“This exhibition is different than any other museum,” he said. “It’s educational, it shows you how people worked hard to discover something, and it gives you a feeling of the history and the process of discovery. It reflects the great interest British people have in Egypt.”

Ambasssador El Kholy said his favourite piece was a wooden sculpture of Tutankhamun’s head.

“They look to the very smallest details of the human face,” he said.

“The eyes and head are very well drawn. I think this was the magic of the Egyptians: they worked hard to create the reality and they gave part of their feelings to what they were capturing.”

The Egyptian Exhibition opens this week.