We may be closer than ever to solving the 3,300-year-old mystery of ancient Egypt’s lost heretic queen.

The world was instantly infatuated when Nefertiti’s face was brought to light in 1912.

The pale limestone-stucco bust was stunningly beautiful.

You can’t have missed her.

Her exquisite features have appeared on the cover of thousands of books. Not to mention millions of tourist brochures.

It’s in souvenir and gift shops. It’s used to sell beauty and healthcare products.

But we don’t know where her body was buried.

British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves set the Bastet (holy cat) among the (sacrificial) pigeons in 2015. He suggested her tomb may be hiding in plain sight – if it had hastily been repurposed for the burial of her son, the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

He pointed to anomalies in his tomb’s design, paintings and plasterwork as hints this had been the case.

But more than a decade of studies have so far failed to find definitive evidence.

Now, a study published on Friday in the Occasional Papers of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project is adding fuel to the flames of anticipation.

It argues all available evidence points to a series of lost chambers behind the plastered walls of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

“Should such an extension eventually be confirmed, it would represent not merely the most important discovery in the Valley of the Kings since the uncovering of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922,” says former Egyptian antiquities minister and Ain Shams University Cairo archaeologist Mamdouh Eldamaty.

“It could potentially rank among the most transformative archaeological discoveries of the modern era.”

The ghosts of KV 62

Something isn’t right about King Tut’s tomb.

Several somethings.

It’s too small. Its orientation doesn’t conform to established tradition. Nor does its floor plan.

It also appears somewhat hastily thrown together.

The sacred golden shrine built to house his coffin had to be cut down to size to fit his unconventionally small chamber. Even his ornate outer coffin had to have its feet roughly chopped short to slot into its lavish stone sarcophagus.

Professor Reeves, who took part in the new analysis of the tomb, points to newly discovered lines and cracks in the north wall of this burial chamber, along with hasty alterations to the room’s paintings, to suggest it conceals a secret.

“KV 62 conforms to the architectural grammar of neither a private nor a kingly monument. The plan Tutankhamun’s tomb follows is that of an Eighteenth Dynasty queen,” he writes in the new report.

The tomb’s celebrated discoverer, Howard Carter, held similar suspicions.

So much so he secretly reinvestigated the tomb in 1932. But he just found a solid stone wall.

“Carter’s choice of test location was significant, reflecting his understanding that, however reduced in size, KV 62 was following an essentially kingly layout. It was not,” explains Prof Reeves.

“Had he recognised the tomb’s queenly orientation, he would have focused his attention on this wall’s opposite, right-hand end – a far more promising section of wall.”

Mismatched seams. Inexplicable chisel marks. Impractical dimensions.

And its wall paintings appear to have been modified to introduce – and overlay – the identity of a new male occupant in a context usually reserved for women.

But who was female, lived in the short but distinctive Amarna era, and enjoyed full royal status?

“The current north wall decoration preserves vital specifics of that room’s original role,” Prof Reeves concludes.

“In it, the officiant had been none other than Tutankhamun as a child, rendered in earlier, Amarna style, and the recipient a ruling woman with the facial characteristics of Nefertiti herself in her long-mooted capacity as Tutankhamun’s ruling predecessor, Smenkhkare.”

Set in stone

“Much has focused on the issue of whether any northern extension to KV 62 might contain the body of Nefertiti,” notes study co-author and geophysicist George Ballard.

“To dismiss that sub-hypothesis, however, is a very different matter from denying the primary contention – that Tutankhamun’s tomb has further chambers to reveal.”

He argues that the seven surveys conducted since the idea was floated in 2015 have not “definitively refuted” the prospect of hidden chambers.

Instead, he identifies what he calls consistently “intriguing features”.

“These may be passageways or chambers for which there appears to be some degree of correlation across the various data sources,” Mr Ballard explains.

The study’s project director agrees.

“The integration of these diverse methodologies and datasets has made it possible to construct a far more nuanced and reliable understanding of the tomb’s true structure,” Mr Eldamaty writes.

“Although the investigation has not yet reached a final conclusion, the cumulative architectural, decorative, and geophysical indicators strongly suggest the existence of at least one further storage chamber beyond the Burial Chamber’s west wall, and a royal funerary continuation beyond its north wall.”

But ground-penetrating sensors are a young science.

And they’ve thrown up plenty of false positives.

The scientific journal Remote Sensing earlier this year retracted a 2022 study claiming satellite radar had revealed hidden structures inside the Great Pyramid of Giza because of “serious methodological flaws and statistical errors.”

But project director Mr Eldamaty remains confident in his results.

“There remains genuine hope that the cliffs of the Valley of the Kings may still conceal, beyond the walls of KV 62, a hidden royal monument capable of illuminating one of the most obscure and controversial chapters of ancient Egyptian history.”

Woman of mysteries

We’ve been here before.

Egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass announced in 2022 that he had found Nefertiti’s lost mummified remains among a cache of disturbed bodies relocated by Egyptian priests.

“I’m sure I’ll reveal Nefertiti’s mummy in a month or two,” he told the Spanish newspaper El Independiente.

He never did.

But his crush helped keep hopes alive of unravelling the heretic queen’s story.

Apart from her face, we know relatively little about Nefertiti’s (likely tragic) life.

She was married to Pharaoh Akhenaten. He threw ancient Egypt into turmoil by proclaiming one supreme god – the Aten – and moving the capital to a new site on the banks of the Nile at Amarna.

We know she lived roughly between 1370 and 1330BC.

She was lavished with grand titles, including “Great Royal Wife”, “Mistress of Joy” and “Lady of Grace”.

But was she her husband’s cousin? Or a foreign princess?

Was she the mother of “The Living Image of the Aten” (later Tutankhamun – a name change to reflect a return to the old chief deity)? An aunt? Or both?

Did, as some historians suspect, she succeed her husband briefly and rule as Pharaoh? Or perhaps as a regent while her son grew to age?

Akhenaten is shown in his later years as having a co-ruler beside him – bedecked with all the traditional (male) regal trappings.

We know he controversially elevated Nefertiti to equal status in his sun-god-centric regime. But was this king, sometimes depicted in intimate poses with Akhenaten, actually her? Or a forgotten son?

Archaeologists have found the name Neferneferuaten.

Was it Nefertiti’s, adapted like that of Tutankhamun’s, after her husband’s death?

Does it suggest she survived? At least for a while?

The Pharaonic name Smenkhkare also seems to fill the gap between Akhenaten and Tutankhamun. But most pharaohs adopted a new name when formally accepting the role.

“I really believe that Nefertiti ruled Egypt for three years after Akhenaten’s death under the name of Smenkhkare,” Dr Hawass told El Independiente.

Proving this isn’t easy.

The restored priests of Thebes (Luxor) were determined to erase her memory, along with her husband’s. They smashed her statues, chiselled out her name, and scratched her face off engravings.

Finding her tomb may be the best chance of filling in the gaps.

Dr Hawass was determined to find her body and tomb.

“I have searched for her burial all over the west of the Valley of the Kings and have not been able to find her,” he bemoaned wistfully in 2022.

“Archaeology is luck. What I do hope is that it will be my last year digging in the Valley of the Kings. I’ve already looked at five locations, and if I can’t find the tomb, I’m leaving.”

He didn’t find it.