King Tut's tomb may be hiding a huge secret.
Egyptian officials said on Monday there's evidence of two hidden chambers behind the tomb's famous painted walls -- and one expert believes those secret rooms could be the long-lost final resting place of Queen Nefertiti.
Monday's inspection of the walls of the 3,300-year-old tomb revealed scratches and other markings.
"This indicates that the western and northern walls of Tutankhamun's tomb could hide two burial chambers," Mamdouh Eldamaty, Egypt's antiquities minister, told Ahram Online.
Eldamaty visited the tomb with Nicholas Reeves of the University of Arizona, who made headlines around the world this summer when he said an examination of high-resolution scans of the tomb's walls showed evidence of a covered-up doorway.
Reeves believes Queen Nefertiti's tomb lies beyond the wall, and that it may be completely undisturbed.
After inspecting the tomb in person, Reeves said there's even more evidence of hidden chambers.
“What my Egyptian colleagues discovered is that there is a distinct difference in the surface of the surrounding wall and the central part that would be covering the door,” Reeves told National Geographic. “The surrounding wall is a softer plastering. At the point where I suspect there’s a doorway, it’s quite gritty.”
NatGeo reports that gritty material is of the same type archaeologist Howard Carter discovered around another blocked entrance when he uncovered Tut's tomb in 1922.
In addition, Reeves told Ahram that the ceiling extends past the tomb on both the northern and western walls.
"I am pretty sure that a very important discovery is to be made soon inside Tutankhamun's tomb," he told the news agency.
The next step is to visit the tomb with ground-penetrating radar, which may reveal any hollow space beyond the walls without damaging the paintings.
Eldamaty said they will announce the results on Nov. 4, the anniversary of the discovery of King Tut's tomb.
He said that while there is evidence of two hidden chambers, he doesn't think Queen Nefertiti will be found on the other side of those walls.
"Maybe a room or a tomb... something there which will be a new addition to Egyptology but I don't agree that much with him that it is Nefertiti's tomb there," he told Luxor Times last month.
He said he hopes it is Nefertiti, but added that whatever is hiding will be "an important discovery."
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