Two new rooms were discovered after scanning the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamduh al-Damati announced this at a press conference in Cairo on Thursday 17 March, the Associated Press reported.
According to him, Japanese researchers helped find the premises. They are planned to be re-scanned at the end of March.
The minister believes that the secret rooms may contain the burial of one of the family members of the young pharaoh. However, he did not begin to assert that this could be the tomb of Queen Nefertiti.
In the fall of 2015, the Egyptian authorities gave permission for research in the Valley of the Kings using radar to test the theory of the existence of the secret tomb of Nefertiti in the tomb of Tutankhamun. It was put forward in August by British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves. He came to this conclusion after studying photographs at a scale of 1: 1 and scans of the walls of the tomb.
Pharaoh Tutankhamun ruled in Ancient Egypt around 1332-1323 BC. He ascended the throne at the age of 10 and died at 19. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by Egyptologist Howard Carter and amateur archaeologist Lord Carnarvon. The find became widely known due to the fact that it was preserved almost untouched by robbers, unlike many other tombs of the pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings.
Queen Nefertiti was the "main wife" of Pharaoh Akhenaten, the father of Tutankhamun. According to some theories, she may be the mother of a young ruler. The causes of Nefertiti's death and the place of her burial are still unknown.