An English archaeologist claims Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti may be buried behind bricked-up passageways in King Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Almost 100 years since its discovery, the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy-king of ancient Egypt, continues to reveal its secrets.
Tutankhamen’s tomb was first discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter.
A researcher claims to have found a ‘ghost’ doorway hiding beneath the plaster on the wall of the burial chamber, which he believes leads to the tomb of the ruler’s supposed mother, Queen Nefertiti.
Famed for her exquisite beauty, the grave of Nefertiti or the ‘Lady of the Two Lands’ has been lost for centuries since her sudden death in 1340 BC.
Previous DNA analysis has suggested King Tutankhamun’s mother may have been a mummy known as the Younger Lady, who is also thought to be his father’s sister.
However, there are some Egyptologists who claim that it is actually Nefertiti, the chief wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten and mother to six of his children, who is Tutankhamun’s mother.
Dr Nicholas Reeves, an English archaeologist at the University of Arizona, has now provided new evidence to support these claims in a report published by the Amarna Royal Tombs Project.
After analysing high-resolution scans of the walls of Tutankhamun’s grave complex in the Valley of the Kings, Dr Reeves spotted what appeared to be a secret entrance.
He described how he uncovered the ‘ghosts’ of two portals that tomb builders blocked up, one of which is believed to be a storage room.
The other, on the north side of Tutankhamun’s tomb, contains ‘the undisturbed burial of the tomb’s original owner – Nefertiti’, Dr Reeves argued.
If Dr Reeves is correct, the hidden tomb could be far more magnificent than anything found in Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.
The radar scan, shows what lies behind the paint on the section of the wall of Tutankhamen’s tomb
The door is believed to be somewhere between points 4, 5 and 6.
“(There are) indications of two previously unknown doorways, one set within a larger partition wall and both seemingly untouched since antiquity.
“The implications are extraordinary: for, if digital appearance translates into physical reality, it seems we are now faced not merely with the prospect of a new, Tutankhamun-era storeroom to the west.
“To the north (there) appears to be signalled a continuation of tomb KV 62, and within these uncharted depths an earlier royal interment – that of Nefertiti herself.”
While noting that the case is “compelling”, Dr Reeves cautions that his theory must be proved by on-the-ground analysis of King Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Two mummies found in the Valley of the Kings, known as the “Elder Lady” and the “Younger Lady”, have not been conclusively proved to be Queen Nefertiti.
Source:
