Egypt says King Tut's tomb may have hidden chambers

LUXOR, Egypt - King Tut's tomb may contain hidden chambers, Egypt's antiquities minister said Tuesday, lending support to a new theory that a queen may be buried in the walls of the 3,300-year-old mausoleum.

While touring the burial sites of Tutankhamun and other pharaohs in the famed Valley of the Kings, Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said he would seek final approval for the radar inspection of the tomb.

Damaty was visiting Luxor with British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, who recently theorized that Tutankhamun, popularly known as King Tut, who died at age 19, may have been rushed into an outer chamber of what was originally the tomb of Queen Nefertiti.

He said high-resolution images of what is known as Tut's tomb "revealed several very interesting features which look not at all natural, features like very, very straight lines which are 90 degrees to the ground, positioned so as to correspond with other features within the tomb."

These features are hard to capture with the naked eye, he said.

Reeves said the plastered walls could conceal two unexplored doorways, one of which perhaps leads to Nefertiti's tomb. He also argues that the design of the tomb suggests it was built for a queen, rather than a king.

"I agree with him that there's probably something behind the walls," Damaty said. But he said if anyone was buried there it was likely Kia, believed by some to be King Tut's mother.

Nefertiti, who was famed for her beauty and was the subject of a 3,300-year-old bust, was the primary wife of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. Akhenaten was succeeded by a pharaoh referred to as Smenkhare and then Tut, widely believed to have been Akhenaten's son.

"Akhenaten's family is full of secrets and historical issues that have yet to be resolved," Damaty said.