Does King Tut's tomb have hidden chambers?
Since his intact tomb was discovered in Egypt in 1922, the mysterious, young Tutankhamun, better known today as King Tut, has never ceased to capture the world鈥檚 imagination.
Now, the 3,000-year-old pharaoh delivers more intrigue, after Egypt鈥檚 antiquities minister Mamdouh Eldamaty on Monday confirmed that archeologists have found evidence of , one of which might lead to the burial chambers of Queen Nefertiti, principal wife of Tut's father聽Akhenaten,聽according to National Geographic.
鈥淭o be honest, I feel numb,鈥� Nicholas Reeves, an archaeologist from the University of Arizona who first proposed the existence of the hidden rooms earlier this year, told National Geographic. 鈥淭his has been part of my life now on a daily basis for more than a year.鈥�
Recent, high-resolution scans of King Tut鈥檚 burial chamber in Egypt鈥檚 Valley of the Kings, a popular burial destination for pharaohs and other powerful Egyptians of the 16th to 11th centuries B.C., showed traces of the doorways for the first time.
In a paper published this year, Dr. Reeves put forward a theory that behind one of the newly discovered doorways lies a storage room, and behind the other, 鈥渦ndisturbed burial of the ,鈥� who may have been Tut鈥檚 mom.
This is a controversial assertion among Egyptologists, as Queen Nefertiti, who died in 1331 B.C., has been claimed to have been , reports National Geographic. There鈥檚 even DNA evidence that suggests she might have been among a group of mummies discovered in 1898 who now lie peacefully at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
", I'm wrong," Dr. Reeves told the BBC. "But if I'm right, the prospects are frankly staggering.鈥�
English archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut鈥檚 tomb in 1922, becoming famous for bringing light to Egypt鈥檚 18th Dynasty, of which little had been previously known. Tut also became famous, his 19 years of life and mysterious death a decade into his reign confounding historians to this day.
The small size and layout of King Tut鈥檚 tomb to Dr. Reeves are clues that it was designed to store the remains of a queen, not a king. The idea is that because of the boy pharaoh's unexpected death at a young age, there was no tomb ready, so Tut was squeezed into a new chamber near Nefertiti, with her chamber door covered by plaster.
Dr. Reeves believes that even the wall murals depicting Tut in various scenes originally featured Nefertiti and were later altered to look like the young pharaoh.
Before the end of the year, archeologists will investigate the potential doors with radar equipment and thermal imaging which will provide more clues to the treasures that lie behind the hidden doors.
"I think there are certainly some signs that there might have been some activity around those doorways," Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist with the University of Manchester told the BBC.
Whether that points to the tomb of Queen Nefertiti is questionable, she said, "But if it was true, it would be absolutely brilliant."
