“The discovery of the century”
By: Nour Sakr
Egyptian experts believe they have found two undiscovered chambers lying behind the west and north walls of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, Egypt’s antiquities minister announced Thursday the 17th of March, after a radar scan found a “90 per cent” chance that Tutankhamun’s burial chamber has two undiscovered rooms.
A scan of the boy pharaoh’s 3,000-year-old burial site in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings appears to show two untouched chambers hidden beyond the ornate walls of his own tomb.
The radar sweep, conducted last year by a Japanese technician, cannot detect what exactly is there but has picked up both metallic and organic materials. The combination raises the tantalizing prospect that the rooms could be another burial chamber and perhaps the final resting place of Tutankhamun’s stepmother, Queen Neferiti.
“When we find Nefertiti, I think it will be more important than the discovery of King Tutankhamun himself,” said El Damati
No tomb has ever been found for the queen, who was married to the Tutankhamun’s father and was fabled for her beauty. Late last year the British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves said he believed Neferiti may have been buried behind Tutankhamun’s own burial chamber.
Minister Mamdouh El Damati said this year the team of Japanese experts analyzed scans of the walls by more efficient and advanced equipment using “infrared thermography” (which creates a special type of image showing heat), archaeologists and Egyptologists scanned the walls of the tomb, and found differences in temperature on the northern wall, and are 90% sure that two chambers containing organic and metal material lie behind Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.
El Damati said the spaces might be another burial chamber. Archaeologist Nicholas Reeves published a paper last year suggesting that Nefertiti, generally accepted as Tut’s mother, could be buried behind the tomb’s north wall.
“It could be the discovery of the century,” El Damati said. “It is very important for Egyptian history and for all of the world.”
Experts will scan the walls of the tomb again at the end of the month to investigate further what lies beyond Tut’s burial chamber. Egypt had announced the possibility of finding a secret chamber in November 2015.
It is too soon to tell if Dr Reeves’s theory is correct but the results of the radar scan have electrified the Egyptologist community and raised hopes of a find on a par with the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922.The speculation about the tomb is a welcome boost for Egypt and its president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi – a general who himself took power in a coup.
“We’re never losing hope in Egypt, we believe in our resources and they’ll be revealed just at the right time!”
NB:Tutankhamun became a king in 1333 bc at the age of 9!
All images courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford. Colorized by Dynamichrome.
All images courtesy of Griffith Institute, University of Oxford. Colorized by Dynamichrome.
