CAIRO – Egypt’s antiquities minister has opened the tomb of King Tutankhamun’s wet nurse to the public for the first time since it was discovered in 1996.

Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty said Sunday the tomb included scenes of the wet nurse, Maya, nursing the young King Tut.

French archaeologist Alain Zivie found the tomb in Saqqara, a necropolis 21 kilometres (13 miles) south of Cairo. Saqqara was the burial site for courtiers and high-ranking officials of ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom, which prevailed over three thousand years ago.

Most of the pharaohs, Tutankhamen included, were buried in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, about 480 kilometres (300 miles) south of Cairo.

British archaeologist Howard Carter found the riches-filled tomb of the boy king Tut in 1922, sparking a worldwide craze for Egyptology.