Archaeologist Nicholas Reeves insists Tutankhamun's tomb leads to Nefertiti's tomb

CAIRO – 26 September 2022: British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves said that the discovery of hidden hieroglyphs inside Tutankhamun's tomb gives weight to the theory that the legendary Egyptian queen Nefertiti is buried in a hidden chamber adjacent to the burial chamber of her husband's son, Tutankhamun.

Nicholas Reeves, former curator in the British Museum's Department of Egyptian Antiquities, added that while the theory remained unproven after inconclusive radar scans, it was given a new boost after the new evidence. Reeves confirmed that the images of Tutankhamun's burial by his pharaonic successor, Ay, were originally inscribed for Tutankhamun in the burial of Nefertiti, the legendary queen of Egypt and wife of King Akhenaten.

"This scene originally showed Tutankhamun burying Nefertiti," Reeves told the Guardian.

"On the decorated northern wall of the tomb of Tutankhamun, his successor in governance appears during the performance of the 'opening the mouth' ritual of the mummy, to restore the five senses of the deceased. A careful examination of Ay's photos reveals clear and implicit traces of a previous name, which is the name of Tutankhamun, as it appears that Tutankhamun performed the funeral rites for Nefertiti, which means that it was a funeral rite for the pharaoh to bury his ancestor," continued Reeves.

He said the new evidence supports the theory that Tutankhamun's tomb is just the outside of a much larger tomb "prepared for and still occupied by" Nefertiti. The tomb's independent sequence of burial chambers is outside of what can currently be seen.

Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered exactly a century ago by Howard Carter and was full of chairs and carriages, which comes among the wonderful treasures the boy king would need in the afterlife.