Is there a Secret tomb hidden in Tutankhamun’s oreat pyramid?

HE WAS a boy king who only reigned for nine years. But a full three millennia on from the death of Tutankhamun, new theories and evidence suggest that his burial tomb maybe hasn’t yet given up all of its secrets. In February 1922, British archaeologist

- Rob Crossan

Howard Carter broke through to the inner chamber of King Tut’s resting place in Giza after years of excavation work.

The treasures within, which Howard described simply as “wonderful things”, included the mummy itself, which caused a sensation when it was exhibited at the British Museum in a show that attracted record crowds in 1972.

Now, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, a former curator at the British Museum, argues in a book published this month that there are still many more treasures contained within the tomb behind secret walls, with Tutankhamun’s burial chamber perhaps being nothing more than the entrance hall to a resting place for another Pharaoh.

“I can understand the scepticism with which my proposals have been greeted in some quarters,” Reeves said in a recent public statement. “And I initially shared it. I’d spent a year testing and retesting my conclusions before feeling comfortable enough to publish.

“To deny the evidence is not going to make it go away.”

Reeves’s theory is based upon years of research of King Tut’s tomb and originated a decade ago when a replica was built so the impact caused by millions of visitors to the original chamber could be minimised.

To create the replica a vast array of 3D images were taken. After much scrutiny Reeves noticed outlines of what he interpreted as a sealed doorway and faint traces of another partition wall.

He claims that not only are there chambers still unseen, but one could contain the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian Queen, who, after her husband’s death, may have ascended to become a rare female Pharaoh, under the new name of Neferneferuaten.