King Tutankhamun's tomb was full of gold despite the boy pharaoh's position

An archaeologist has suggested that the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun could be the richest of any Ancient Egyptian ruler. It is just over 100 years since Howard Carter and his team discovered the inner burial chamber of Tutankhamun's tomb and unsealed it.

Later when they opened his coffin, they were stunned to find an array of treasures buried with him, given his relative insignificance as a ruler. Inside the sarcophagus they discovered the boy king's mummy wearing a mask fashioned from gold and semi-precious stones. There were also chariots, statues and even a dagger crafted using iron from a meteorite.

Carter and his team believed that Tutankhamun's burial treasures meant that there would be greater riches to uncover in the tombs of more eminent pharaohs.

Tutankhamun does not rank high on the list of great Egyptian pharaohs, having failed to achieve much in his life due to his early death. He reigned for less than 10 years, dying in his teens before he could commission grand monuments or make his mark militarily.

Nicholas Brown at Yale University says this means he "ranks down near the bottom of the list" of pharaohs in his particular branch of the royal family - known as the 18th dynasty. Member of the dynasty ruled ancient Egypt from the mid-16th to the early 13th century BC.

As a result, Tutankhamun has one of the smallest tombs in the Valley of the Kings, near modern Luxor, measuring only about 110 square metres.

However, Peter Lacovara - an eminent Egyptologist - now believes Tutankhamun's tomb may actually be the richest of any pharaoh's in ancient Egypt's 3000-year-long existence.

"Even King Khufu in the Great Pyramid of Giza would never have had anything approaching the quantity of material in Tutankhamun's tomb," he said.

It may now soon be possible to verify his theory, following the discovery of a tomb of another pharaoh who reigned at about the same time.

Researchers are poised to unearth an untouched royal tomb purportedly belonging to Tutankhamun's great-great-great-great grandfather, Thutmose II.