Hidden Chambers Near King Tut’s Tomb Could Lead to Nefertiti

New gravity and radar surveys revive a decade-old archaeological controversy.

Although Tutankhamun was a pharaoh, his tomb looks strangely modest for one.

When Howard Carter opened King Tut’s tomb, technically known as KV62, in 1922, he found rooms packed with extraordinary treasures. Yet the tomb itself was surprisingly small and oddly laid out for an Eighteenth Dynasty king. Its corridors and chambers also turn in a direction more typical of tombs built for royal women.

The peculiarity invited an intriguing possibility: perhaps the tomb was never meant for Tutankhamun at all.

In 2015, British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves proposed that KV62 was only the front portion of a much larger royal tomb. When Tutankhamun died unexpectedly at around 19, Reeves argued, workers may have hurriedly adapted its outer rooms for the young king and sealed off the rest. Beyond the painted walls, he suggested, could lie the burial of Tutankhamun’s predecessor—possibly Nefertiti.

Then scientists tried to look through the walls with radar—but the results were disappointing. Some surveys appeared to support the presence of hidden spaces, while others found no convincing evidence at all. Breaking through the wall with jackhammers is simply unthinkable in such a precious archaeological site.

Now the mystery has returned with a new set of measurements.

Researchers say a combination of ground-penetrating radar, electrical surveys, and tiny variations in gravity points to a buried funerary complex extending as much as 25 to 30 meters north of the known tomb, perhaps containing five or six chambers connected by passages packed with rubble.

And they think it could indeed lead to Nefertiti.

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Might or Might Not Be There

Reeves’s original case did not depend on radar alone.

High-resolution scans of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber revealed lines beneath the plaster that he interpreted as traces of blocked doorways. Analysis of the burial paintings also suggested that the north wall was decorated using different techniques from the other three, suggesting it may have existed before the chamber was adapted for Tutankhamun.

The tomb’s architecture raised further questions. Viewed from the burial chamber outward, KV62 turns left. Reeves argues that this arrangement resembles an unfinished tomb prepared for Hatshepsut when she was still a queen, whereas contemporary royal tombs generally turned in the opposite direction.

He therefore proposed that KV62 originally belonged to a female ruler who preceded Tutankhamun. Reeves identifies that ruler with Nefertiti, whom he argues later ruled Egypt under another royal name, Neferneferuaten.

But geophysical surveys did not seem to agree.

A 2015 survey reported signals consistent with spaces beyond the walls. Subsequent work failed to reproduce them. In 2018, three radar systems produced what appeared to be a much firmer result: no evidence for chambers immediately behind the burial chamber.

Yet in 2020, another radar investigation detected a possible structure beyond the tomb, reopening the argument.

The authors of the new study say those earlier surveys may have been searching for the wrong thing. A passage need not be an open void, they argue. Ancient builders could have deliberately packed it with rubble, making it much harder for radar to distinguish from surrounding rock.

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Careful Drilling

If radar alone was not revealing enough, the researchers turned to another technique: microgravimetry.

This technique measures extremely small variations in Earth’s gravitational field. A hollow space or rubble-filled corridor contains less mass than solid limestone and can therefore create a detectable anomaly.

Using more than 1,200 measurements, the team mapped several low-density features north of KV62. Some form roughly rectangular shapes and run parallel or perpendicular to the tomb. The geometry is consistent with human construction rather than natural geology, which should be more random.

Radar from inside the tomb also detected what the team interprets as a roughly two-meter-wide rubble-filled passage extending from the burial chamber.

One feature, dubbed “anomaly 7,” has attracted particular attention. It consists of a low-density zone surrounding a denser, roughly square area. George Ballard, the structural engineer who analyzed the surveys, told Nature it could represent a chamber containing objects. But he also acknowledged that he was “looking at the very limits of detection.”

The new study itself contends that some proposed passages remain speculative. Other anomalies might result from natural cavities or collapsed rock rather than architecture.

Christopher Gaffney, a ground-penetrating-radar specialist at the University of Bradford, called the report “fascinating” but told Nature it’s not enough evidence to draw a definitive conclusion.

Peter Styles, a geophysicist at Keele University, said the existence of chambers “looks plausible,” but also wants to see more of the underlying data.

That leaves one obvious way to settle the argument.

The team has proposed carefully drilling several holes about seven to eight centimeters wide from the surface toward one of the strongest anomalies. Tiny remote-controlled vehicles equipped with 360-degree cameras could then enter any spaces they encounter.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities must approve the plan. If it does, exploratory work could begin as early as November.

Even discovering chambers would not prove Nefertiti lies inside. They might contain storerooms, another burial, collapsed debris—or nothing resembling Reeves’s reconstruction.

After a decade of contradictory scans, however, archaeologists may finally be approaching the point where the mystery can no longer be settled from outside the walls.

The findings were published as Occasional Paper 8, Amarna Royal Tombs Project.