Tutankhamun’s Tomb

Tutankhamun – Egyptian Pharaoh of 18th Dynasty

The discovery of 1922 by Howard Carter and George Herbert of Tutankhamum, the Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty received worldwide coverage due to his nearly intact tomb. It 'had ignited public interest in ancient Egypt wherein Tutankhamum’s facade is now on display in the Egyptian Museum tends to be the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts recovered from his tomb have been touring the world. The results of DNA tests done in February 2010 have indicated that he was the son of Akhenaten – mummy KV55 and his mother was the sister of Akhenaten and wife whose name is not known though whose remains seemed to be identified as `The Younger Lady’ mummy found in KV35.

 The mysterious death of some of those involved in unearthing the tomb of Tutankhamum had been attributed to the spell of the pharaohs. Archaeologist were of the opinion that the last burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt was discovered much before Howard Carter had opened the faultless tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamum in 1922. Tut had ruled for only a decade in Egypt from 1332 to 1322 BC and had died at the age of 19. The tomb’s amazing golden artifacts, untouched by looters before its discovery, drewt he attention of the people making him one of the most famous and intensively studied mummies of Egypt.

Storage Space for Coffin/Burial Provision

However, Tut was not the last secret that the valley had. In the past there were two additional chambers which had been located wherein one was a storage space for coffins and burial provisions, while the other had the mummy of a woman who was a singer at the Temple of Karnak. A radar specialist Hirokatsu Watanabe had conducted a series of ground penetrating radar scans in November 2015.

The study of those scans has been done and it has been suggested that there could be more chambers probably comprising of burials, hidden behind walls of the king’s tomb. Ground penetrating radar seems difficult to be used on the rocks in the Valley of the Kings. As per Zahi Hawass, who was the former Minister of State for Antiquities, the natural cracks in the rock could reflect heat waves which could make them seem like man-made chambers and hence another round of scan has been scheduled to confirm that chambers tend to exist.

Forty Scans of Five Various Levels

Khaled el-Anani, Antiquities Minister had informed reporters that had gathered opposite the southern city of Luxor, the popular site on the western bank of the Nile River, that experts had worked for 11 hours all through the night to retrieve 40 scans of five various levels of the area behind the burial chamber of Tut. He had mentioned that additional scans would be following and had invited archaeologists from various parts of the world to come to Cairo in May to inspect the discoveries.

The scans are part of a search for the remains of Queen Nefertiti and would answer the queries on whether her mummy remains behind the false walls of the Luxur complex. Nicholas Reeves, British Egyptologist had stated that he is of the belief that Tut’s tomb is `simply the outer element of a larger tomb that belongs to Nefertiti.