Scans suggest ’90pc’ chance of hidden chamber in King Tutankhamun’s tomb

Based on the detailed scans and photographs of Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor which were published past year by Factum Arte, a Spanish specialist in art and replication, Reeves noted that beneath the layers of paint, the texture of walls revealed cracks which may suggest the presence of two doors leading to passageways.

Dr Reeves said: “Clearly it does look from the radar evidence as if the tomb continues, as I have predicted”.

“The radar, behind the north wall (of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber) seems pretty clear”. “The possible findings range from nothing at all or unfinished and closed corridors to storage chambers or intact burials with treasures”, cautioned mummy expert Frank Rühli, director of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich.

To test his theory, Reeves recently used radar and thermal imaging to scan the tomb and differentiate between bedrock and walls.

Damati believes that such a chamber, should it be found adjoining Tutankhamun’s tomb, may actually contain another of Akhenaten’s wives, Kiya. Reeves believes this is because the 19-year-old died unexpectedly and was hurriedly buried in the chamber of a tomb meant for Nefertiti. But Damaty says that scans indicate that there nearly certainly is some type of hidden chamber behind the wall of the tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

“I’m feeling more certain today than I expected to be”, he said outside the Howard Carter House, a site named after the British archaeologist propelled to global celebrity for his discovery of the Tutankhamun tomb in 1922.

Egypt began the search for the hidden chamber last week. “We can’t go back and re-do it, so we have to do it well in the first place”, Reeves said.

Akhenaten is credited with temporarily turning Egyptians to a monotheistic worship of the sun god, Aton.

“Nefertiti will never be buried in the Valley of the Kings”, he told AFP.

King Tut’s tomb, though elaborately decorated, is rather small considering Tut’s status, which has led to speculation among Egyptologists that it was originally intended as a grander royal tomb, perhaps for someone else.

Hawass, meanwhile, also questioned how archaeologists would enter the hidden part of the tomb without causing damage.

Damati said that after the analysis, that would be the next challenge.

“The next step, which we will announce once we agree on it, will be accessing what’s behind the wall without damaging the tomb”, he said. “We have the data but we must analyze it to understand”.