Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al-Damaty told a press conference that metal and organic masses were revealed by the scans, signaling that the rooms could possibly contain funerary objects.

"It could be the discovery of the century. It's very important for Egyptian history and the history of the world," he said, adding that the chambers may well have belonged to a king or queen. Further tests will be done on March 31 to discover more about the newly-discovered spaces, he added.

The 1922 discovery of King Tut's tomb by a team of British archaeologists became a sensation that sparked a worldwide interest in ancient Egypt. Thursday's revelations raise the tantalizing possibility that the more than 4,500 artifacts uncovered nearly 100 years ago were only part of a larger royal funerary treasure.