Rumours of another tomb found in the Valley of the Kings?

Jane Akshar mentions rumours of another tomb find near KV-8 (Merenptah) on her blog and I received an email from Lug Buergin last night pointing me to this story [Sensational Discovery in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings!, Luc Buergin, Legendary Times, March 11, 2008]

Also Bernhard Grundl mentions it here on the Glyphdoctors forum here.

So if this new find is over by KV-8 then it is not the radar anomaly reported by Nicholas Reeves' Amarna Royal Tombs Project here (31 July 2006) as this appears to be in a different place.

Check out the maps on the Theban Mapping Project website for comparison.

And we have this confusing news item from the Egyptian State Information Service detailing a new SCA archaeology excavation team, headed by Zahi Hawass, that is going to find new tombs in the valley of the Kings.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni named the first antiquities excavation team under Dr. Zahi Hawass Secretary General of the Antiquities Supreme Council to operate in Valley of the Kings in Luxor to unearth a number of tombs of kings and queens including Ramesses the [Eighth] and Thutmose the Second.

Dr. Hawass said the unearthing of those tombs would be regarded as the most important discovery since that of Tutankhamen tomb, especially as the excavation operations in the western bank was monopolized by foreign missions.

The Kings Valley included 63 royal tombs unearthed by foreign archaeological missions, Hawass added.

The first archaeology excavation team was formed, Egyptian State Information Service, Egypt, March 25, 2008.

So, they found a "doorway" or "stepped entrance" last November and kept it quiet (this is standard practice as official announcement is always through the SCA and they'd want to know exactly what they were dealing with first. This happened with KV63 when it was discovered.) And now they announce that they have formed an excavation team to find the missing tombs of two New Kingdom pharaohs. I expect there will be an official announcement soon of this new team discovering something.

For more interesting topics related to archaeology, visit archaeology excavations.