Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Egypt's Valley of the Kings, another ancient puzzle has popped up on the radar screen — literally.

The Amarna Royal Tombs Project says radar readings show what could be another 3,500-year-old chamber from the days of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, not far from the recently explored KV63 chamber.

Is it "a find of the greatest possible significance," as the project hopes?

The newly publicized "anomaly," dubbed KV 64, appears to be a shaft leading deep underground, according to reports published by the Valley of the Kings Foundation and Archaeology magazine. A similar signature was seen in the strange case of KV63 — which turned out to be a storage chamber for mummification supplies, perhaps converted from an intended royal tomb...

Cosmic Log: Another Egyptian Mystery, Alan Boyle, MSNBC, USA, August 03, 2006.

The Egyptian Museum opened a second mummy chamber yesterday where the mummies of 11 royal figures from the 20th dynasty of the New Kingdom were put on display.

A large crowd of tourists and journalists swarmed the chamber as Supreme Antiquities Council Secretary General Zahi Hawass gave information on the history of the discoveries and the mummified royal figures.

The room is designed like a royal tomb with vaulted ceiling and indirect low lighting to exhibit the mummies.

The exhibition includes the mummies of Ramses III and priests of Amun who succeeded in ruling the southern half of Egypt as priest kings and proclaiming Thebes as Egypt’s religious capital...

Egypt museum opens second mummy room, DPA via Gulf Times, Qatar, August 07, 2006.

cf. Second mummy chamber opens at the Egyptian Museum, DPA via Monsters & Critics, UK, August 07, 2006.

The museum, which hoped to sell 350,000 advance and same-day tickets by the end of June, sold 360,000 by midnight June 30 and since has surpassed 400,000. That’s a good indication the museum will fulfil its hope for more than a million visitors to the travelling exhibit by the time it closes Jan. 1 [2006].

Those numbers are impressive, especially because two popular temporary exhibits are running at other museums. An exhibit devoted to the inventive mind and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci and a display of lizards, including a Komodo dragon, the largest in the world, have bumped up summer business at the Museum of Science and Industry and the Shedd Aquarium, respectively, though neither institution has released attendance figures.

If Tut does draw 1 million visitors, attendance would be the highest for any exhibit at a Chicago museum since the 1977 show drew 1.36 million to the Field in just four months. Since then, big museums have sought to organize or bring in shows that could attract the public in similar numbers. A million-seller represents a huge windfall for a museum in terms of admissions, memberships and other income-generating activities such as souvenir sales, restaurant sales and evening-party rentals...

Tut again casts a golden spell but probably won’t set a record, William Mullen, The State, South Carolina, USA, August 03, 2006.