End of the mystery! The results of the last radar tests carried out in the tomb of Tutankhamun, in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, belie any possibility of hidden cavities.
No unknown or hidden parts were found near or inside the hypogeum of Tutankhamun Pharaoh (KV62), in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt. Francesco Porcelli, of the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy), head of the Italian scientific team in charge of the latest radar analyzes, could not confirm the information delivered by the Japanese Hirokatsu Watanabe, in March 2016. At the time his data, received with enthusiasm by the Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Mamdouh Eldamaty, had suggested the possible 95% presence of an unknown cavity.
No empty space that can be interpreted as a secret cavity
The results of the latest radar scans were released Sunday, May 6, 2018, from Cairo, the Egyptian capital, by Francesco Porcelli as part of the „Fourth International Conference of Tutankhamun“, held at the Great Egyptian Museum (GEM). The Italian geophysicist has explained that the multiple GPR (ground-penetrating radar) analyzes carried out in recent months along the walls of the Tutankhamun burial chamber revealed no marked discontinuity on the walls, nor anything to suggest the presence of an artificial door lintel. No empty space that could be interpreted as a secret cavity was found behind the painted north and west walls. In conclusion, the hypothesis formulated by the British Egyptologist Nicolas Reeves, in 2015 „concerning the existence of a hidden chamber or corridors adjacent to the tomb of Tutankhamun is not supported by the GPR data“, concluded the Italian expert.
An endpoint to three years of twists
This outcome puts an end to three years of twists, concerning the possible presence of an unknown room in the hypogeum of Tutankhamun. The idea put forward by the Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, a specialist of the XVIIIth Dynasty, was that in the face of the sudden death of the child-king who died at 19, no burial having been prepared to welcome him, the priests would have buried the young pharaoh in a tomb that was not intended for him: in this case, the supposed one of Queen Nefertiti, the royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaton, his father.
These final georadar analyzes are the third to be conducted in the famous royal burial. They were decided by the Egyptian authorities with the aim „to stop the controversy provoked by the contradictory results of two previous radar studies carried out by Japanese and American scientific teams“, as well as the media frenzy that followed. In addition to the experts from the University of Turin, the team of specialists who worked in the Royal Tomb consisted of two geophysicists from private companies Geostudi Astier, Livorno (Italy), and 3DGeoimaging, from Turin (Italy).
