As even the least attentive school-age students of history will recall, Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 was the archeological discovery of that century. Now a find of similar importance could be soon unearthed – in a chamber directly behind that of the boy king.
Radar scans of Tutankhamun’s resting place in Luxor have shown a 90% chance that there are two hidden chambers to the rear of it, possibly containing metal and organic material, according to Egypt’s antiquities minister, Dr Mamdouh Eldamaty.
The presence of new tombs untouched for thousands of years adjoining one of the most famous burial places in history would be reason enough for excitement. But there is speculation that inside one of the chambers could be the remains of Queen Nefertiti, among the wives of Tutankhamun’s father and celebrated for afamous 3,300-year-old bust of her beautiful likeness. The scans were conducted after a theory proposed in October by the British Egyptologist, Dr Nicholas Reeves, speculating that beyond Tutankhamun’s chamber could lie the tomb of Nefertiti, who died in the 14th century BC. Some Egyptologists have cast doubt on Reeves’s hypothesis that murals inside Tutankhamun’s tomb point to a much grander chamber beyond, and his certainty that this could only be that of Nefertiti.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Eldamaty declined to speculate on what might be found, saying only that the likelihood of finding a new tomb was now greater than his previous estimate of “67% sure”.
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