An elevated view of King Tut’s tomb shows two walls that may contain hidden doors leading to secret rooms. Kenneth Garrett, Nat Geo Image Collection.
2. King Tut’s Tomb May Have a Secret Chamber
Upon its discovery in 1922, Egyptologist Howard Carter knew that he had made the find of a lifetime. Today, the tomb of King Tut has still not yet revealed all of its secrets. A thermographic study of the burial chamber, done in 2015, showed slight temperature variations on one of the walls. The finding suggests that there may be another room on the other side of the room, an idea that is consistent with a theory posited by Nicholas Reeves in 2015 that suggests that Queen Nefertiti may be buried in the same area as King Tut.
If further studies prove that there is, in fact, a secret chamber which actually holds the remains of Queen Nefertiti, researchers may find that the tomb was built for the queen. Nobody has yet found the tomb of Queen Nefertiti, who was the primary wife of King Tut’s father and may have been the boy king’s father. She was one of only two women who is known to have ruled during the New Kingdom. Finding her tomb has long been the holy grail of Egyptology, and Nicholas Reeves that the monument might be hiding in plain sight. Just on the other side of a wall of one of the most visited rooms in the world.
Christian Eckmann works on restoring the mask of King Tut. Amr Nabil/AP/The Guardian.
1. The Beard on His Mask Broke Off
King Tut is one of the most iconic figures in all of ancient Egypt, and possibly the most recognizable feature attributed to him is the beard on his gold burial mask. In the year 2014, a group of Egyptians who were handling the cover accidentally broke the beard off of his mask. In the attempt to hide their blunder, they used a plain epoxy adhesive to glue the beard back on. To try to remove some of the adhesive residue, they used sharp instruments, including scalpels. The result was that the priceless beard was scratched.
The team of Egyptian researchers claimed that the beard fell off while they were cleaning it. Others said that it just fell off because it was so old and had been handled so much. Still, they were charged with gross negligence of a national treasure. A German-Egyptian team repaired some of the damage and used beeswax – the adhesive that is customarily used on antiquities – to attach the beard to the mask. Other conservation efforts are in place to help make sure that the priceless treasures of King Tut, now viewed as part of our global heritage, are preserved for future generations to enjoy and appreciate.
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