The wife of Ancient Egypt's most famous ruler may have been uncovered in the Valley of The Kings. Photo / Getty Images
The wife of Ancient Egypt's most famous ruler may have been uncovered in the Valley of The Kings. Photo / Getty Images
By Tim Collins
The wife of Ancient Egypt's most famous ruler may have been uncovered in the Valley of The Kings.
Egyptologists have discovered what they believe is the burial chamber of Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamun's wife.
If confirmed, it could help to unravel the final fate of the boy king's wife,who suddenly disappeared from historical records after her second marriage, the Daily Mail reports.
World renowned archaeologist and former Egyptian minister for antiquities, Zahi Hawass, uncovered the burial plot near the tomb of the pharaoh Ay.
The team plan to excavate the newly discovered chamber to determine exactly who is inside.
Speaking to LiveScience, he said: 'We are sure there is a tomb there, but we do not know for sure to whom it belongs.
"We are sure there is a tomb hidden in that area because I found four foundation deposits.
"The ancient Egyptians usually did four or five foundation deposits whenever they started a tomb's construction.
"[And] the radar did detect a substructure that could be the entrance of a tomb."
One of Egypt's famed King Tutankhamun's golden sarcophagus is displayed at his tomb in a glass case at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt. Photo / AP
King Tut became pharaoh at the age of ten in around 1332 BC and ruled for just nine years until his death.
In the same year he became pharaoh he married Ankhesenpaaten, his half-sister.
Tutankhamun's significance stems from his rejection of the radical religious innovations in.
He had attempted to supplant the traditional priesthood and deities with the minor god Aten.
When King Tut was aged 12 the backlash against the new religion was so intense that the young pharaoh changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.
A year later, the royal court moved back to the old capital at Thebes, now called Luxor, which was the centre of worship of the god Amun and the power base of the Amun priests.
King Tut is considered a minor phaorah.
However, his fame arose when his tomb was found in 1922 by Howard Carter.
It was almost intact and remains the most complete ancient Egyptian royal tomb ever found.
And the tomb continues to reveal hidden secrets even today.
In February, archaeologists announced plans to resume the search for lost burial chambers in King Tutankhamun's tomb.
The news follows more than a year of speculation after British Egyptologist, Nicholas Reeves, said he found signs of a hidden doorway in King Tut's tomb.
At the time, he said one of the secret rooms could be the burial place of Queen Nefertiti.
A team now plans to use radar systems to scan the 3,300-year-old chamber.
The search will be led by the Polytechnic University Turin, Italy and will be the third team in the past two years researchers have looked for the lost chamber.
Mamdouh Eldamaty, Egypt's former antiquities minister, said there is a "90 per cent" chance the tomb has hidden chambers.
He claims that and finding them would be the "discovery of the century".
