The history of ancient Egypt ’s iconicQueen Nefertitiis a germ of on-going machination and speculation . Renowned for her beauty , she was the chief wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten , formerly Amenhotep IV , during the 14thcentury B.C.E. Though her husband ’s decision to part with traditional religion and give the Aten , a cult of the Sun magnetic disk , was extremelycontroversial , she supported him . A notable figure no incertitude , in part due to hericonic busthoused in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin , yet her body has never been get .
So where is this long lost queen ? One British archaeologist has a sheer theory . Nicholas Reeves believes it could be hidden in a burial chamber that has been in good order under our nose : adjacent to the tomb of Tutankhamun , who was Akhenaten ’s boy by another wife . But physical grounds was lacking for this hypothesis , until now . Indications for the existence of not one , but two concealed burial chambers have now been found in the male child king ’s tomb .
“ I am pretty sure that a very of import discovery is to be made before long inside Tutankhamun ’s grave , ” Reeves toldAhram Online .
The find is the effect of both physical inspections of the tomb , conducted by Reeves and Egypt ’s antiquities minister Mamdouh Eldamaty , and examinations of optical maser images deal by Madrid - base digital mediation companyFactum Arte . Their scan were used to construct a reproduction of the immature pharaoh ’s tomb , but the squad made them publicly available for anyone with interest , so Reeves wasted no time scrutinizing them .
He make out discrete line behind the poultice covering the western and northern walls of the grave , which could represent shadow of doorways that had been cover up . Reeves was so confident of his theory that the puzzling Nefertiti may lie behind these rampart that he release a paper outlining his ideas , but it ’s only this week that it has been bolstered by observations made during forcible investigating of the elbow room that contains Tutankhamun ’s sarcophagus .
“ First of all , we learn that on the ceiling itself there ’s a distinct crinkle , ” Reeves toldNational Geographic . This , he say , matches up with the part of the wall that they surmise may have been plastered to conceal a concealed chamber , making it unaccessible to the robbers and archeologists who have look into the tomb in the past . “ It evoke that the elbow room was indeed a corridor . ”
Then there is also the fact that the material cover this rampart does not appear to be consistent across it , with the central part differ from the sticking plaster smother it , which could be indicative of a room access in the middle . This would n’t be the first prison term that such a find has been revealed , but we will have to wait until more detailed microwave radar scans of the grave are comport for confirmation of the front of a hollow . Even then , we wo n’t necessarily find out what ’s inwardly , because the bulwark is compensate in a invaluable painting , so catch permission for dig wo n’t be easy .
disregardless , there are ultimately no promises for the discovery of Nefertiti . Tutankhamun buy the farm by chance before accomplish 20 , so it’spossiblethat there was not enough time to forge him a new grave , and that instead he was hastily buried in one that was originally purpose for someone else , perhaps Nefertiti , who die a decade before . But others are n’t so sure , alternatively purpose that the body ofKiyamay lie behind the wall , another of Akhenaten ’s married woman and the suspected female parent of Tutankhamun .
[ ViaNational Geographicandthe Guardian ]
