King Tut’s Mom May Be Buried With Him
Experts say a hidden chamber behind Tut’s tomb may contain his mother, Queen Nefertiti.
Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty
New studies have confirmed that radar scans of King Tutankhamen’s tomb show two sealed-off areas, unseen by modern man, and theories abound about what’s in there.
One possibility: Tut’s mom.
Historians have wondered for centuries about the fate of the young pharaoh’s mother, Queen Nefertiti. No record exists of her existence after about 1330 B.C., and the location of her remains is unknown.
Until now… maybe. British archaeologist Nicolas Reeves hypothesized in August that Nefertiti may have been buried in a chamber just behind Tut’s tomb. The only problem was that at the time, there was still doubt that the two hidden chambers existed.
Today that has changed. Egypt’s antiquities minister has announced that additional studies of high-resolution radar scans—conducted to create a life-size copy of the tomb—confirm the existence of two walled-off rooms. No one knows what's inside them, so one of them could be Mom’s.