Scans show hidden chambers behind Tutankhamen's tomb

Cairo, March 17 (IANS/AKI) Scans of King Tutankhamen's tomb have almost certainly shown two rooms hidden behind the pharaoh's burial chamber, Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damati said on Thursday.

"We can say more than 90 percent that the chambers are there," Damati said at a press conference in Cairo. "It could be the discovery of the century."

Radar scans carried out in November pointed to "different things behind the walls, different material that could be metal, could be organic", he said.

The hidden rooms could house the grave of a member of Tutankhamen's family, according to al-Damati.

Prominent British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves believes 14th Century B.C. ruler Queen Nefertiti was buried there. One of ancient Egypt's most iconic figures, she may been Tutankhamen's mother.

Studies carried out on the west and north wall of the more than 3,000-year-old burial chamber reveal that solid and empty spaces are located behind them as well as lintels that indicate the presence of doorways, Damaty said.

A more advanced scan will be conducted later this month to ascertain whether the empty spaces are in fact chambers.

'Boy king' Tutankhamen was 18 or 19 at the time of his death in 1323 B.C. and was the son of ancient pharaoh Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV).

Some theories hold that Nefertiti was Tutankhamen's mother and that she was her husband Akhenaten's first cousin.

--IANS/AKI

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