An English archaeologist believes that the tomb of Tutankhamun, the “Boy King” of ancient Egypt, also contains the burial chamber of Queen Nefertiti, wife and chief consort of Tutankhamun’s father, Pharaoh Akhenaten. Dr Nicholas Reeves of the University of Arizona has discovered what he strongly suspects to be secret doorway leading from Tutankhamun’s tomb to that of Nefertiti. The queen, whose name means “the beautiful one has come”, was one of the most powerful women in ancient Egypt. She is thought to have reigned alongside her husband, and then ruled Egypt in her own right as pharaoh for a short time after his death. Her tomb could prove to be far more magnificent than that of Tutankhamun, the only pharaoh’s tomb in ancient Egypt yet discovered (in 1922) that had all of its treasures intact.

From his inspection of hi-res scans of the walls of the burial chamber in Tutankhamun's tomb, Dr Reeves says he has detected the “ghosts” of two bricked-up doorways. One of them he thinks may lead to a store room, while the other, on the north wall, could open to “the undisturbed burial chamber of the tomb's original owner, Nefertiti”. The wall appears to have been decorated with scenes made at an earlier date than the other three walls of Tutankhamen's tomb.