Is Queen Nefertiti’s tomb located within the spectacular tomb of King Tutankhamun (King Tut for short)?
This question has polarized some Egyptologists. In one camp, we have Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves—Director of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project and visiting scholar at the University of Arizona—who claims that Queen Nefertiti’s burial chamber is actually located in a secret chamber behind the northern wall of King Tut’s tomb.1 Reeves first made this claim after examining high-resolution images of the tomb. He detected the outlines of two hidden doorways—one in the northern wall of King Tut’s burial chamber and the other in its western wall. He suggests that Nefertiti’s burial chamber and a smaller chamber are located behind these hidden doorways.
New radar and infrared scans performed in November 2015 seemed to support Reeves’s theory. Based on the new tests, Mamdouh el-Damaty, the current Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, believes there are very good odds—9 out of 10—that there are indeed chambers behind the walls of King Tut’s tomb.
If Reeves is correct, Queen Nefertiti is buried in the space behind the northern wall.
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On the other side of the equation, we have Zahi Hawass—the famous former Minister of Antiquities who used to be the face of Egyptian archaeology. He claims that Reeves’s theory is preposterous. Hawass is convinced there is nothing behind the walls of King Tut’s tomb and that Egyptologists would be foolish to try to verify Reeves’s theory. As reported by The Telegraph, Hawass states, “There is nobody in Egypt, whether the minister of archaeology or anyone else, who can take the responsibility for making a scratch in Tutankhamun’s tomb.” To perform excavations in King Tut’s well-preserved tomb—damaging the tomb in the process—and not find other hidden chambers would certainly be a tragedy.
Who is right? Perhaps time and further testing will tell us. Until then, the search for Queen Nefertiti’s tomb goes on.
Is Queen Nefertiti’s tomb located within the spectacular tomb of King Tutankhamun (King Tut for short)?
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