Egypt’s Mystery Chamber

The most important discovery in the Valley of the Kings since Tutankhamun — finally unlocked.

In 2006, archaeologists unearthed KV63 — a tomb less than 50 feet from the resting place of Tutankhamun, and widely considered the most significant find in the Valley of the Kings since Howard Carter’s legendary discovery in 1922. For three years, it remained sealed and silent, its unopened jars, damaged inscriptions, and delicate artefacts shrouded in uncertainty.

This film was there when it was finally opened.

With exclusive access granted by the Science Channel, the documentary follows archaeologist Dr. Otto Schaden and his team as they return to KV63 in 2009 to complete what they started — unsealing the tomb’s remaining 16 jars and confronting what lies inside. Capturing every moment of the painstaking excavation as it unfolded in real time, the film bears witness to discoveries that rewrite our understanding of one of ancient Egypt’s most sacred and secretive practices: the mummification of its pharaohs. Among the finds — nearly 500 pounds of natron, a fully intact embalming swab of a kind never previously discovered, mud trays bearing the fingerprints of those who made them three thousand years ago, and an intricately carved wooden funerary bed packed piece by piece into a single jar.

The evidence points to KV63 as a sacred holding place for the tools of mummification — a clandestine, ritualised process the outside world was never meant to witness. And tantalising connections to Tutankhamun himself suggest the tomb’s story may not yet be fully told.