An unprecedented survey using new generation radar technologies should soon be carried out inside the tomb of Tutankhamun, Egypt, to check for possible unknown cavities.
After several months of stand by, further thorough investigations could soon be conducted in the tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62) near Luxor, Egypt. The search for cavities unknown in the hypogeum of the famous sovereign of the XVIIIth dynasty is therefore still current. But the teams change! This time, scientists from the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy) are expected to visit the Valley of the Kings with new generation radar equipment to test the famous tomb discovered by Briton Howard Carter in 1922.
„This will be a rigorous scientific work lasting several days or even weeks, „explained the team leader Franco Porcelli, project director and professor of physics in the Department of Applied Sciences and Technology of the Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy). Preliminary investigations are planned in the coming weeks.
By 2016, the entire world had been kept in suspense by further explorations in the tomb of Tutankhamun
By 2016, the whole world had been kept in suspense by new explorations carried out in the tomb of Tutankhamun. They followed speculation by the British Egyptologist at the American University of Arizona (USA), Nicholas Reeves.
The idea put forward by this specialist of the eighteenth dynasty was the possible presence of an unknown chamber in the mansion of Tutankhamun, a young king who died at the age of 19 years (1324 BC). Faced with his sudden death-and without a tomb ready to receive him-the priests would have buried the young Pharaoh in a burial that was not intended for him, but perhaps for Queen Nefertiti, the royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaton, his father. That, according to Nicholas Reeves.
To justify his theory, Nicolas Reeves relies on the study of very high resolution images (between 100 and 700 microns) realized by the company Factum Arte, during the execution of the facsimile of this royal hypogeum. It would have enabled it to reveal traces of two closed openings. In a document published online, Nicholas Reeves then estimated that the tomb of Tutankhamun concealed „secret two doors“ plastered, concealed under frescoes. One on the west side of the present funerary chamber, the other behind its north wall.
The first thermal analyzes as well as ground penetration radar examinations carried out by the Japanese specialist Hirokatsu Watanabe were initially welcomed with enthusiasm by the former Minister of Egyptian Antiquities, Mamdouh Eldamaty, for whom the presence of two rooms Unknown beyond the north and west walls were 90% plausible. What the preliminary analyzes of the radar tests carried out by the Japanese expert did indeed confirm. These were officially announced on Thursday, March 17, 2016 by Mamdouh Eldamaty himself, during a press conference given at the headquarters of this institution in Cairo.
But as the Valley of the Kings was riddled with fissures and natural cavities, a second series of radar-control sweeps by a team from the National Geographic Society had not reached the same conclusions, chilling the hopes of researchers and Many media outlets from around the world. In May 2016, an international conference in Cairo also failed to give the scientific community an understanding of the results. These events took place at the moment when a change of minister at the head of the department of Egyptian Antiquities took place.
Today we have new scientific proposals that have been approved by Khaled al-Anani, Egypt’s new antiquities minister, Egyptologist himself:
„We had not canceled this project, but we preferred to deal with „A serious proposal, made by Italy, and the Standing Committee studied and approved it,“ he said in an exclusive interview with the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. „We have to allow time for science and its methods,“ he said, „and it may take years,“ he said, „to be more careful than his predecessor.
As for the possibility of finding the grave of Nefertiti, the Egyptian minister reminded: „I am an academic. First, we must certify the presence of a cavity and, if so, We will have to specify whether it is a grave or not, and if so, we must investigate who it belongs to.“
