Search for remains of Spain's greatest writer Miguel de Cervantes begins

The search for the remains of 'Don Quixote' author Miguel de Cervantes is set to begin and should the search succeed, it will be known by the year's end.

The estimated cost of the operation is 100,000 euros, Fox News reported.

A three-phase search will take place at the Convent of the Barefoot Trinitarians in Madrid's historic Barrio de las Letras-or Literary Quarter.

Cervantes had been wounded in battle and spent years captive in Algiers. He had been seized by Turkish pirates who boarded the ship on which he was returning to Spain after fighting in a war against the Ottoman Empire.

Then in 1616, aged 69, he was buried. Years later the chapel was expanded to its current-still modest-proportions.

According to Fernando Prado, the historian in charge of the project, just five people, including a child and Cervantes, are buried there.

The investigation will refer to the author's portraits and his own stories, in which he relates that shortly before dying he only had six teeth.