14 DAY TRIAL // A few months ago, a researcher by the name of Nicholas Reeves proposed that Pharaoh Tutankhamun's burial chamber could hide secret rooms adjacent to it and that one of them might hold the remains of Queen Nefertiti, believed to be the ancient ruler's mother.
This past Monday, September 28, the archaeologist was allowed to enter King Tutankhamun's tomb and use sophisticated equipment to search for evidence that there really is more to the burial chamber than meets the eye. As it turns out, Nicholas Reeves might really be on to something.
Officials in Egypt back up his theory
Just yesterday, officials with Egypt's antiquities minister announced that, having examined the walls of Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb, archaeologist Nicholas Reeves and the research team accompanying him on this quest found scratchings and markings that hint at the presence of hidden rooms.
The engravings, supposedly similar to what Howard Carter found at the entrance to Tutankhamun's burial chamber back in the 1900s, are distinguishable on the northern and the western walls. Hence, it might be that they were put there to signal secret doorways leading to hidden rooms.
“This indicates that the western and northern walls of Tutankhamun's tomb could hide two burial chambers,” minister Mamdouh Eldamaty told the press in an interview, as cited by DM. He also pointed out that, judging by its design, Tutankhamun's tomb seems more fit for a queen.
The scientists behind this investigation have not yet got around to using radar technology to explore the burial chamber and check whether it really does hide secret doorways and not yet discovered rooms. Still, they promise that, by early November, they will sort out this mystery.
Even if this study reveals the presence of hidden chambers, it won't be until they find their way into them and properly explore them that researchers will be able to determine whether, as proposed by Nicholas Reeves, they really do hold the remains of Ancient Egypt's Queen Nefertiti.
Why would Queen Nefertiti be buried here?
As mentioned, archaeological evidence hints that Queen Nefertiti was Pharaoh Tutankhamun's mother. Researcher Nicholas Reeves thinks the tomb King Tut was laid to rest in was actually built for his mother, but that he was buried in it after he died unexpectedly at the age of 19.
Then, when Queen Nefertiti passed away too, she was buried in a room adjacent to the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The entrance to her burial chamber was sealed and so her remains were lost to history.
Together with her consort Pharaoh Akhenaten, Queen Nefertiti started a religious revolution in Egypt. Thus, they worshiped just one god, Aten, which they identified with the disk of the Sun.
