Archaeologists may have found pharaoh's second tomb

A British archaeologist believes his squad whitethorn person recovered a 2nd tomb successful Egypt belonging to King Thutmose II.

The imaginable find comes conscionable days aft Dr Piers Litherland announced the discovery of the archetypal tomb of a pharaoh since Tutankhamun's was revealed implicit a period ago.

Dr Litherland told the Observer helium suspects this 2nd tract volition clasp the pharaoh's mummified body.

Archaeologists judge the archetypal tomb was emptied six years aft burial, owed to a flood, and relocated to a second.

Dr Litherland thinks the 2nd tomb lies beneath a 23-metre (75 ft) man-made heap of limestone, ash, rubble and mud plaster, that was designed by past Egyptians to look similar portion of a upland successful the Western Valleys of the Theban Necropolis adjacent the metropolis of Luxor.

The archetypal was located down a waterfall, and it is thought to person flooded arsenic a result.

When Egyptologists were searching for the archetypal tomb, they recovered a posthumous inscription that indicated the contented could person been moved to a 2nd determination nearby, by Thutmose II's woman and half-sister Hatsheput.

The British-Egyptian squad are present moving to uncover the tomb by hand, aft attempts to passageway into it were deemed arsenic being "too dangerous".

"We should beryllium capable to instrumentality the full happening down successful astir different month," Dr Litherland said.

The unit recovered the archetypal tomb successful an country associated with the resting places of royal women, but erstwhile they got into the burial enclosure they recovered it decorated - the motion of a pharaoh.

"Part of the ceiling was inactive intact: a blue-painted ceiling with yellowish stars connected it. And blue-painted ceilings with yellowish stars are lone recovered successful kings' tombs," said Dr Litherland.

He told the BBC's Newshour programme earlier this week that helium felt overwhelmed by the find.

"The emotion of getting into these things is conscionable 1 of bonzer bewilderment due to the fact that erstwhile you travel crossed thing you're not expecting to find, it's emotionally highly turbulent really," helium said.

Thutmose II is champion known for being the hubby of Queen Hatshepsut, regarded arsenic 1 of Egypt's top pharaohs and 1 of the fewer pistillate pharaohs who ruled successful her ain right.

Thutmose II was an ancestor of Tutankhamun, whose reign is believed to person been from astir 1493 to 1479 BC. Tutankhamun's tomb was recovered by British archaeologists successful 1922.