Researchers and scientists are 90 percent sure that two hidden chambers lie behind the walls of Egypt’s King Tutankhamun’s tomb. What do they think lies beyond?
 
Making international headlines this week were reports coming out of the Valley of the Kings that researchers are 90 percent sure that two hidden chambers lie behind one of the walls in King Tutankhamun’s tomb. Ever since the tomb’s discovery by Howard Carter and George Herbert in 1922, it has been hailed as one of the greatest repositories of dazzling 18th Dynasty objects, ranging from the young pharaoh’s death mask to wooden furniture and solid gold statuary. What is more, the tomb was fully intact at its discovery — the only undisturbed tomb ever found.
 
If the reports prove true, the tomb might reveal even more. Unfortunately, the “hidden chambers” lie behind a wall that displays beautifully carved and painted murals. Recent radar and thermal scans have proved promising, but what lies within the chambers remains a subject of conjecture. Archaeologist Nicholas Reeves believes the chambers contain another royal burial — King Tut’s mother-in-law, Nefertiti. National Geographic reports, “If so, this would be only the second intact royal burial site to be discovered in modern times — and it would, in the words of Mamdouh Eldamaty, the Egyptian antiquities minister, represent ‘one of the most important finds of the century.’”
 
The indications seem promising, but confirmation and any findings will have to wait until a detailed strategy emerges that will allow archaeologists to access the hidden spaces.
 
To learn more, visit National Geographic.
 
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