New Scans Reopen the Rooms Beyond Tutankhamun
Fresh ground-penetrating radar and microgravity work around KV62 point to a rubble-packed corridor and possible chambers north of Tutankhamun’s burial. Egypt still holds the drill permit.
The Location
KV62, Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, has always looked too small for a royal burial. The latest geophysical campaign looks again at what might sit beyond its painted walls.
A Nature news report dated around 17 September 2026 covers new results from a team led by archaeologist Mamdouh Eldamaty of Ain Shams University, with structural engineer George Ballard analyzing the geophysics. The conclusions appear in the Occasional Papers of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project.
What's There
Inside the tomb, ground-penetrating radar is read as showing a roughly 2-metre-wide corridor packed with rubble leading away from the burial chamber. Ballard argues earlier teams missed it by hunting a large empty void immediately behind the wall.
Outside, a microgravity survey of more than 1,200 readings across about 35 square metres is said to show right-angled low-density structures parallel to the north wall. One feature, anomaly 7, mixes low density with a denser square patch that might mark a chamber holding objects — Ballard himself calls that reading near the detection limit.
A further possible room west of the burial chamber is harder to separate from the gravitational pull of a nearby tomb.
The History
In 2015, Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves argued KV62 could be a larger tomb truncated for Tutankhamun, perhaps linked to Nefertiti. Earlier radar campaigns produced mixed answers. The new work combines interior GPR, exterior microgravity and earlier resistivity anomalies in similar places.
Independent specialists quoted by Nature remain cautious. One calls the report fascinating but incomplete; another finds chambers plausible from the gravity data yet wants more detail. Full data release still needs Egyptian permission.
The Mystery
If the voids are real and sealed since antiquity, the next step is not a wrecking ball. The team has applied to drill narrow boreholes from above for camera inspection, potentially from November 2026 if Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities approves.
JitterSnap’s read: the map is getting louder. The tomb has not yet answered.
A corridor full of rubble is still only a hypothesis until a camera enters it.