Dig that! Man who found pharaoh's tomb may have unearthed another

Archaeologist believes his find of the century’ could be surpassed by latest excavation

- Donna Ferguson

To uncover the location of one long-lost pharaoh's tomb is a career-defining moment for an archaeologist. But to find a second is the stuff of dreams.

Last week British archaeologist Piers Litherland announced the find of the century - the first discovery of a rock-cut pharaoh's tomb in Egypt since Tutankhamun's in 1922.

His team found the pharaoh Thutmose II's tomb underneath a waterfall in the Theban mountains in Luxor, about 3km west of the Valley of the Kings. It contained almost nothing but debris, and the team believe it was flooded and emptied within six years of the pharaoh's death in 1479BC.

Now Litherland has told the Observer he believes he has identified the location of a second tomb belonging to Thutmose II. And this one, he suspects, will contain the young pharaoh's mummified body and grave goods.

Archeologists believe this second tomb has been hiding in plain sight for 3,500 years, secretly buried beneath 23 metres of limestone flakes, rubble, ash and mud plaster and made to look like part of the mountain.

"There are 23 metres of a pile of man-made layers sitting above a point in the landscape where we believe - and we have other confirmatory evidence - there is a monument concealed beneath," he said. "The best candidate for what is hidden underneath this enormously expensive, in terms of effort, pile is the second tomb of Thutmose II."