Scans suggest hidden chamber likely behind Egypt's King Tut's tomb

Scanning the walls of King Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings suggests that a hidden chamber will likely be found, the country's antiquities minister said Saturday.

"We can now say that we have to find behind the burial chamber of King Tutankhamun another chamber, another tomb," Mamduh al-Damati said at a press conference in presence of British Egyptologist Niclolas Reeves.

Preliminary results of infra-red thermography to map out the temperature of the tomb's walls revealed that there might be a discovery behind the north and the west walls of the tomb, al-Damati added.

Analysis showed "differences in the temperatures registered on different parts of the northern wall of the tomb," he added.

"We said earlier there was a 60 percent chance there is something behind the walls. But now after the initial reading of the scans, we are saying now its 90 percent likely there is something behind the walls," said Damati.

Reeves believes that the last resting place of Queen Nefertiti, who played a major political and religious role in Egypt in the 14th century B.C., will be found behind Tut's tomb.

However, Damati sees that such a chamber, if found adjoining Tutankhamun's tomb, may contain Kiya, a wife of pharaoh Akhenaten and not Queen Nefertiti. Endit