New Research

Mysterious ‘Anomalies’ Have Been Detected Beyond King Tut’s Tomb. Could They Be Secret Passageways Leading to the Long-Lost Remains of Queen Nefertiti?

Geophysical surveys provide new evidence for a theory that the Egyptian pharaoh was interred in the outer rooms of an existing burial complex. Researchers are trying to get approval to investigate for themselves

Ellen Wexler | Writer and Special Projects Editor

September 25, 2026 5:08 p.m.

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When archaeologist Howard Carter unearthed the entrance to an ancient Egyptian tomb in 1922, he found himself “on the threshold of what might prove to be a magnificent discovery,” he later recalled. “Anything, literally anything, might lie beyond that passage.”

The tomb, which belonged to King Tutankhamun, is now considered one of the most celebrated finds in the history of archaeology. But at the time, even amid the excitement, “one thing puzzled me,” Carter wrote, “and that was the smallness of the opening in comparison with the ordinary Valley tombs.”

In the years that followed, Carter and his fellow researchers would make their way to the antechamber, which was filled with hundreds of treasures, and the burial chamber, where the mummified pharaoh himself rested inside three nested coffins. But none of these magnificent discoveries explained the tomb’s diminutive size.

In 2015, a new theory emerged: What if the ancient Egyptians had built the complex, known as KV62, for Queen Nefertiti before converting some of its outer rooms into a tomb for Tutankhamun? And if so, could her tomb be located in a still-unexplored chamber beyond the rooms excavated in the 1920s?

Now, a decade later, researchers have conducted new geophysical surveys using techniques such as ground-penetrating radar and microgravimetry. The results, published this month in the Occasional Papers of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project, provide new evidence that additional rooms may be concealed beyond Tutankhamun’s.

“This study has demonstrated that the careful integration of archaeological analysis, modern scientific methods and long-term field expertise can reopen matters long thought settled,” lead researcher Mamdouh Eldamaty, Egypt’s former antiquities minister, writes in the paper. If the team’s theory is correct, “it could potentially rank among the most transformative archaeological discoveries of the modern era.”

Tutankhamun ascended to power circa 1333 B.C.E., when he was only 9, but his reign ended with his untimely death about a decade later. Meanwhile, Nefertiti’s story is still a matter of debate. She was a wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten, likely Tutankhamun’s father, and she may have been the boy’s stepmother. Some historians argue that she served a brief stint as a pharaoh herself. The location of her tomb has been a longstanding mystery.

The idea that the queen’s tomb might be hiding beyond Tutankhamun’s was the brainchild of Nicholas Reeves, a British Egyptologist and co-author of the new study. In a 2015 paper, he pointed to scans of the tomb’s walls, which suggested that traces of “two hitherto unrecognized doorways” might be hiding beneath the paint. Reeves argued that the Egyptians weren’t prepared for Tutankhamun to die at such a young age. As such, they may have interred him in the outer chambers of the burial complex belonging to Nefertiti.

Since then, research has found conflicting evidence for this theory. But some of these investigations had been searching for “a large void immediately behind the wall,” Nature’s Jo Marchant writes. Based on “anomalies” identified in the recent surveys, the study authors argue that several additional chambers may be located roughly 80 to 100 feet north of the burial chamber.

The researchers describe some of these potential structures as “highly speculative,” though they claim to have identified two with “reasonably high levels of confidence.” They think that these chambers may connect to Tutankhamun’s via passageways packed with rubble.

The new findings are “very tantalizing,” Ray Johnson, former director of the Epigraphic Survey at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, tells Nature. “Who could not be excited?” At the same time, he cautions that any hidden chambers, if they do exist, may not contain Nefertiti’s tomb. They may also be in poor condition, damaged by flooding or other natural forces. “With changing climate and increasingly higher water table,” Johnson says, “recovery of the data is probably the best way to preserve them.”

The researchers want to investigate the anomalies for themselves. They’re now trying to get approval to drill a small hole from above and lower cameras through it. That’s the only way to know for certain what’s hidden beyond Tutankhamun’s chambers, co-author George Ballard, a British structural engineer, tells the London Times’ Rhys Blakely. Still, they have high hopes about what they might find. “The sky’s the limit,” Reeves tells the publication.

Christopher Gaffney, an archaeologist at England’s University of Bradford, tells Nature that he’s “feeling pretty ambivalent” about the theory. The new data is “fascinating,” he adds, but it doesn’t allow researchers to provide any conclusive answers. Peter Styles, a geophysicist at England’s Keele University, adds that he also wants more information.

If Egyptian authorities approve the project, drilling could start as early as November, according to Nature. In the meantime, the team is working out the details of the operation, eagerly anticipating the results. Will their cameras capture long-forgotten ancient chambers or a disappointing rocky darkness?

“Each piece of evidence on its own is not conclusive, but put it all together and it’s hard to avoid my conclusion,” Reeves told the Economist in 2015. “If I’m wrong I’m wrong, but if I’m right this is potentially the biggest archaeological discovery ever made.”

Ellen Wexler is a staff writer and special projects editor, digital, for Smithsonian magazine.