Tut's Tomb May Also Be Nefertiti's Resting Place

Radar scans of the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun in the ancient necropolis of Luxor showed a 90 percent chance of two hidden chambers, possibly containing organic material.

Experts had scanned the tomb to find what a British archaeologist believes could be the resting place of Queen Nefertiti, the legendary beauty and wife of Tutankhamun's father whose mummy has never been found.

Preliminary scans of Tutankhamun's tomb reveal "two hidden rooms behind the burial chamber" of the boy king, Antiquities Minister Mamduh al-Damati told reporters.

"Yes, we have some empty space, but not total empty, including some organic and metal material," Damati said in English.

When asked how certain he was, he said there was a "90 percent" chance.

A study by renowned British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves has said that Nefertiti's tomb could be in a secret chamber adjoining Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor in southern Egypt.

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Plan showing the location of the rooms next to Tutankhamun’s tomb

Reeves, professor of archaeology at the University of Arizona, believes one door of Tutankhamun's tomb could conceal the burial place of Nefertiti.

According to him, Tutankhamun, who died unexpectedly, was buried hurriedly in an underground chamber probably not intended for him.

His death would have forced priests to reopen Nefertiti's tomb 10 years after her death because the young pharaoh's own mausoleum had not yet been built.

Damati said the two hidden chambers were behind the northern and the western walls of Tutankhamun's burial chamber.

"What it means, we have two extensions" behind Tutankhamun's burial chamber, he said.

When asked if the organic material could be a mummy, Damati could not say. "I can only say we have here some organic materials."

Damati and Reeves differ on whose mummy they expect to find, with the minister previously saying that Tutankhamun's tomb may contain the mummy of Kiya, a wife of Akhenaten.

On Thursday, he said a new radar test would be conducted on March 31.

"Another radar, more improved, will check and measure for the dimensions of the wall behind and the thickness of the walls," Damati said, adding that the result of the new test would be announced in Luxor on April 1.

Nefertiti played a major political and religious role in the 14th century BC.

She actively supported her husband Akhenaten - Tutankhamun's father - who temporarily converted ancient Egypt to monotheism by imposing the cult of sun god Aton.

Tutankhamun died aged 19 in 1324 BC after just nine years on the throne. His final resting place was discovered by another British Egyptologist, Howard Carter, in 1922.

Experts are also scanning four pyramids to unravel the mysteries of the ancient monuments.

Using infrared technology, a team of researchers have been scanning the pyramids of Khufu, also known as the Great Pyramid, and Khafre at Giza and the Bent and Red pyramids in Dahshur, all south of Cairo.

Operation ScanPyramids, which aims to search for hidden rooms inside those four monuments, is expected to continue until the end of 2016.

Scientists discover hidden chambers in Tutankhamun's tomb - 9news.com.au

Can you imagine the excitement of going into such a place for the first time....

Egyptologists differ on Tut tomb 'hidden chambers'

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Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said on Sunday new technology is needed to determine whether Tutankhamun's tomb contains hidden chambers which a British archaeologist believes may hide queen Nefertiti's remains.

Anani spoke to archaeologists and reporters at a conference in Cairo dedicated to King Tutankhamun and his world-famous golden funerary mask.

The mood at Sunday's conference was sceptical months after former minister Mamduh Damati said the secret chambers probably existed, raising expectations of another historical find.

Damati inspected the tomb last September with the theory's proponent, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves.

His theory and the attention paid to it came as Egypt struggles to revive its key tourism industry after years of political turmoil.

However, experts disagreed on Sunday over how the search for the chambers was handled.

"Handling the project wasn't done scientifically at all," said former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass.

Damati himself said more tests were needed.

"The infrared scan said we need to repeat it because we have something that we cannot be sure what it is exactly," he said.

Damati had said in March that there was a "90 percent chance" that the tomb had two hidden chambers containing organic material.

Reeves theorised that Tutankhamun's tomb was in fact Nefertiti's, and when the boy king died unexpectedly at a young age, he was rushed into her tomb's outer chamber in Luxor's Valley of Kings in southern Egypt.

Hawass suggested that the current antiquities minister hire an autonomous committee of experts to handle the investigation.

"We have to stop this media presence, because there is nothing to publish," he said.

To reassure archaeologists at the conference, Anani said: "I will not make any drills (in the tomb walls) until I am sure 100 percent that there is a cavity behind the wall... I'm very satisfied with the warm scientific debate."

Nefertiti was famed for.....

https://www.yahoo.com/news/egyptolog...82.html?ref=gs