King Tutankhamen’s burial chamber does not have a secret passage, new radar scans reveal
Radar scans have put to rest theories that the tomb of Queen Nefertiti might be located behind a secret wall in the king’s ancient tomb
New radar scans have provided conclusive evidence that there are no hidden rooms inside King Tutankhamen’s burial chamber, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said Sunday, bringing a disappointing end to years of excitement over the prospect.
Mostafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said an Italian team conducted extensive studies with ground-penetrating radar that showed the tomb did not contain any hidden, man-made blocking walls as was earlier suspected.
Francesco Porcelli of the Polytechnic University of Turin presented the findings at an international conference in Cairo.
In 2015, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves proposed, after analysis of high-definition laser scans, that Queen Nefertiti’s tomb could be concealed behind wall paintings in the famed boy king’s burial chamber.
The discovery ignited massive interest, with officials first rushing to support the theory but then later distancing themselves and ultimately rejecting it.
The ministry says two previous scans by Japanese and American scientists had proved inconclusive, but insists this latest ground-penetrating radar data closes the lid on the tomb having such hidden secrets.