Is Nefertiti Buried in the Valley of the Queens?
She may be ancient Egypt’s most famous face, but the quest to find the eternal resting place of Queen Nefertiti has always been hotly sought after.
It remains to this day, one of Egypt’s most outstanding
mysteries.
In 2015, Egyptologist Dr. Nicholas Reeves, first suspected there were still undiscovered chambers lying inside the tomb of Tutankhamun.
These chambers may possibly hold the mummy of Nefertiti.
Do the remains of the ancient world’s most famous woman lie concealed in the Valley of the Kings? Frustratingly close to the tomb of her step-son, Tutankhamun?
Does the tomb of Egypt’s most beautiful and enigmatic Queen, really be inches from the most well-known and visited tomb in the world?
Or does she lie in the Valley of the Queens, a nearby cemetery once used for royal Egyptian women?
The Valley of the Queens was known in ancient times as Ta-Set-Neferu, “The Place of Beauty”.
It would only be fitting for Nefertiti to rest here.
Her name has the hieroglyph nefer, meaning ‘beautiful/perfect’, and her name means ‘the beautiful one has arrived’.
Nefertiti has become one of Egypt’s most famous Queens.
She was wife to Pharoah Amenhotep IV.
He became an avowed monotheist in his early years as king, and changed his name to Akhenaten.
Evidence from these early years, suggests that Nefertiti was just as involved in the new religious cult as her husband.
Nefertiti performed important duties as a high priestess to the new sun god, the Aten.
In the fifth year of his rule, Akhenaten founded a new city half-way between Thebes and Memphis, calling it ‘the Horizon of the Aten’
He relocated his wife, family and royal entourage and lived there for thirteen years, before he ultimately disappeared.
The Royal tomb that Akhenaten had built for himself and his family, appears as if it was never used.
No remains of the king or queen were ever found there.
Half-way down the tomb’s corridor, on the right, a doorway opens onto a long string of corridors and chambers, all unfinished and undecorated.
Could this possibly be the suite of rooms intended for Nefertiti?
Could Nefertiti be buried in the Valley of the Kings?
There is good evidence that she became Pharaoh of Egypt after Akhenaten vanished, under the name ‘Ankheperure Neferneferuaten’.
Since Nefertiti had always been known as Neferneferuaten during her years as Queen, it seemed logical that she must have assumed the throne after her husband’s disappearance.
Tutankhamun was only eight when he ascended the throne, so perhaps Nefertiti became co-Pharaoh, with a young Tutankhamun.
If this was the case, it is very likely that she would have wanted a tomb in the traditional royal cemetery at Thebes, the Valley of the Kings.
Could Tutankhamun’s tomb originally have been built for Nefertiti?
The boy-king died so unexpectedly, no tomb had yet been built for his journey into the afterlife.
Additionally, it has been theorised that Tutankhamun’s famous golden mask originally belonged to someone else….
Evidence includes the fact that the mask is made of many different pieces, including a front and back panel, made of different compositions.
Also, some of the hieroglyphics have been re-inscribed.
The mask was likely made with a new face piece in the image of Tutankhamun.
This was soldered and riveted in place after the original face had been removed.
The mask still has the holes originally made for earrings.
Was this mask first made for Nefertiti?
It is now recognised that major flash flooding occurred in the Valley of the Kings at the end of the 18th Dynasty, not long after Tutankhamun was buried.
This concealed the entrance to his tomb with rock debris, helping it avoid detection for over three millennia.
Could a similar phenomenon, perhaps even the same flash flooding event, have affected the nearby Valley of the Queens – possibly hiding the entrance to Nefertiti’s tomb too?
The Valley of the Queens is the first target identified for Nefertiti’s tomb.
Data strongly suggests a possible future huge discovery there.
Could that discovery be Nefertiti?
“Nefer Say Nefer”
