Tea at Trianon: Possible Hidden Chambers Beyond Tutankhamun’s Tomb

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, September 21, 2026

Possible Hidden Chambers Beyond Tutankhamun’s Tomb

From Heritage Daily:

A new investigation of the famous tomb (KV62) in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings has revealed underground anomalies which researchers say may be a hidden complex of rooms and passageways.
The results are not conclusive, however — and independent experts have cautioned until more detailed data (or physical evidence) is available.

Researchers used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and microgravity measurements to investigate the tomb and surrounding ground. The latter detects tiny changes in Earth’s gravitational field which scientists can use to identify differences in the density of material below the surface.
The team says the combined evidence points towards structures that could pre-date the burial of Tutankhamun.

Mamdouh Eldamaty, an archaeologist at Ain Shams University in Cairo and Egypt’s former antiquities minister, said the findings “suggest a possible hidden complex of corridors and rooms”.
One of the most interesting things they found is evidence of what they believe could be a two metre wide corridor filled with rubble extending away from Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.

Structural engineer and geophysics specialist George Ballard who analysed the survey results alongside data from earlier surveys says that earlier surveys might have missed it because they were looking for a large empty chamber immediately behind the tomb wall. (Read more.)