All language subtitles for Lost.Treasures.of.Egypt.S02E05.WEBRip.x264-ION10.en

NARRATOR: Egypt, the richest
source of archaeological

treasures on the planet.

MAN: Oh, wow!
Look at that.

NARRATOR: Hidden beneath
this desert landscape

lie the secrets of this
ancient civilization.

[speaking native language]

ALEJANDRO: I have never
seen something like this.

NARRATOR: Now, for a full
season of excavations,

our cameras have been given unprecedented access to follow

teams on the front
line of archaeology.

MYRIAM: This is the
most critical moment.

[shouting]

NARRATOR: Revealing
buried treasures.

-SALIMA: Oh!
-AHMED: We were lucky today.

NOZOMU: Wow!
Lots of mummies.

KATHLEEN: The
smell is horrible!

NARRATOR: And making
discoveries that could

rewrite ancient history.

JOHN: We'’ve never had
the proof until now.

COLLEEN: This is
where it all started.

ALEJANDRO: My goodness,
I never expected this.

[applause]

NARRATOR: This time Anna goes
in search of one of Egypt'’s

most enigmatic
queens, Nefertiti.

ANNA: If she wasn'’t buried
here, where was she buried?

[shouting]

NARRATOR: Mohamed searches
for the lost wife of a noble.

MOHAMED: If we are
lucky we will have her.

NARRATOR: An ancient cemetery
reveals a startling find.

FATHI: No.

NARRATOR: And John and Maria uncover the secrets of

Nefertiti'’s great Empire.

MARIA: Wow, this is beautiful.

[theme music plays]

NARRATOR: Egypt, land
of the mighty pharaohs,

buried in monumental tombs
with dazzling treasures.

But among these
great Kings and Queens,

some are missing,

including one of the most
iconic of all: Nefertiti.

How did one of the most
powerful women in the ancient

world vanish from history?

In the heart of Egypt lies
the ancient site of Amarna.

Here, archaeologist Dr. Anna
Stevens has spent nearly two

decades unearthing the
secrets of a ruined city

and its captivating Queen.

ANNA: We'’ve left the riverside
city of ancient Amarna behind,

and we'’re traveling
through the low desert,

heading out to the cliffs
that border ancient Amarna.

NARRATOR: Anna heads
for the royal tomb of

Nefertiti'’s husband,
pharaoh Akhenaten.

The king'’s burial chamber is
badly damaged by flooding,

but it is another chamber that Anna has come to investigate.

ANNA: It'’s so prominent that
you'’d have to think it belongs

to a suitably prominent member
of the Amarna royal family.

NARRATOR: She searches
for any sign of
Nefertiti'’s whereabouts.

The walls of a royal
tomb should be covered
in elaborate carvings,

but here are only rough
chisel marks on bare rock.

ANNA: It'’s completely
unfinished;

it'’s not suitable for
the burial of a queen.

NARRATOR: The tomb is
half-built and abandoned.

ANNA: It hasn'’t
taken a royal burial.

If she wasn'’t buried here,
the question is, of course,

where was she buried?

NARRATOR: These ruins were
once a vast city from which

Nefertiti and Akhenaten ruled
over their great empire.

Nestling on the East
bank of the Nile,

Nefertiti'’s capital city
covered over 3000 acres

and was home to up
to 50,000 people.

What is now barren landscape
was once one of the greatest

cities in the ancient world,
and from these palaces and

temples, the royal couple
ruled over all of Egypt.

She doesn'’t appear
to be buried here.

But does this place
hold clues to the fate
of the missing Queen?

Nefertiti is famous
today because of this
iconic bust of her.

She has one of the most
well-known faces in
all of ancient Egypt.

ANNA: This is about
the spot that the bust
was actually found.

We'’re in the house and the
workshop of a sculptor

who was probably
called Thutmose.

This is where the Nefertiti
bust was originally created.

It'’s one version of
Nefertiti'’s official portrait.

She may herself have
signed off on this image.

But really we have no idea what
she'’d look like in real life.

NARRATOR: Nefertiti'’s early
life is also still a mystery.

Her father was probably Ay,
vizier to Pharaoh
Amenhotep III,

so she would have been
brought up in a Royal palace.

By the age of just 15,
she married Amenhotep'’s

second son, the new
pharaoh Akhenaten,

and bore him six daughters.

As his queen, Nefertiti
became the most powerful
woman in all of Egypt.

Yet Nefertiti'’s ultimate
fate remains a mystery that

occupies archaeologists
all over Egypt.

200 miles south along
the Nile, at Luxor,

lies the necropolis of Asasif,

a vast cemetery where Egypt'’s

rich and powerful were buried
around the time of Nefertiti.

Site director Fathi Yaseen and his team are about to excavate

a hidden burial shaft.

NARRATOR: Fathi runs one of the busiest archaeological digs

in Egypt, with up
to 100 workers shifting
sand every day.

Sayed Mohamed is one
of his most experienced
archaeologists.

NARRATOR: This ancient cemetery is full of artifacts.

NARRATOR: Most of
the finds are from the
same era as Nefertiti.

[speaking native language]

NARRATOR: Ancient objects
of ceramic and stone

are common here.

But this seems to
be made of wood.

NARRATOR: A wooden face
looks up from the sand.

The mystery object could
be a wooden mask or statue.

They must try to free
it from the ground.

FATHI: Wow!

NARRATOR: The rope
seems to wrap around it.

NARRATOR: Coffin
finds are rare,

particularly ones dating back
to the time of Nefertiti.

But whatever it is in the
ground, it is quite large.

NARRATOR: This is
no ordinary burial.

Only one in 20 people
could afford a coffin
in ancient Egypt.

NARRATOR: The rope, made
from twisted palm leaves,

is tied around the feet.

[clapping]

NARRATOR: For Sayed, the ropes can mean only one thing.

NARRATOR: If the coffin
does have a mummy in it,

it could date back
to Nefertiti'’s time.

100 miles south, at
Gebel El Silsila...

JOHN: Everybody here?

NARRATOR: It'’s 7:00am.

Husband and wife team Maria
Nilsen and John Ward set

course for the ancient
sandstone pits that pharaohs

quarried for their great
monuments, statues,

temples and palaces.

-MARIA: Good morning, John!
-JOHN: Good morning.

It'’s early in the morning, I
haven'’t had enough coffee yet.

NARRATOR: Akhenaten and
Nefertiti opened several

quarries here.

JOHN: Gebel El Silsila'’s
golden sandstone was revered

and required by
all the pharaohs.

NARRATOR: John and Maria hope
to discover important clues

about what Akhenaten
and Nefertiti were
building at the time.

The size of the gallery shows
the scale of excavation.

JOHN: People don'’t realize
the sheer magnitude.

This one pillar alone is
monumentally huge and this

supports the roof above me.

NARRATOR: Before they can
investigate the clues here,

they must clear the
thick layer of sand.

JOHN: Jenna.

MARIA: It'’s always a good
start when our workers

describe it as heaven!

[laughing]

JOHN: So, clean, clean,
clean, clean, clean, clean,

clean, clean, clean,
down on the floor.

Clean, clean, clean, clean,
clean, onto the floor.

MARIA: It'’s gonna be dirty.

NARRATOR: As they
clear the floor,

John makes a
surprising discovery.

JOHN: Hey!
Guess what I got?

MARIA: You'’ve got
to be kidding me!

-JOHN: You ready for this?
-MARIA: Yeah.

NARRATOR: Beneath the
sand on the quarry floor,

John thinks he'’s found a
clue to how ancient Egyptians

quarried stone here.

JOHN: What would they have
used to get such straight lines?

MARIA: You haven'’t?

JOHN: Both hands.
A plumb bob. Amazing!

MARIA: That'’s our
first. That'’s...

JOHN: Our first plumb bob.

You just think, that'’s been
laying there since Akhenaten

closed the quarry!

NARRATOR: This plumb bob is
a worker'’s tool dropped over

3,000 years ago.

JOHN: That would
have had the cord on,

and they would have been able
to get the straight line.

This is our first one
at Silsila,

and it is beautiful!

NARRATOR: Nearby, Maria wants to analyze an inscription

she'’s found carved
on the rock.

Her keen eye has spotted
faint traces of ancient ink.

MARIA: You'’ve got lines
of text here and here.

NARRATOR: She thinks she can
decode the markings to link

the quarry directly
back to Akhenaten,

but here he uses
a different name.

MARIA: It is the
time of Amenhotep IV,

before he turned
into Akhenaten.

NARRATOR: Amenhotep the
fourth was his original name.

But it is more than
just a change of name.

Early in his reign, he
created a new identity,

transforming himself
into Akhenaten.

He also imposed a change
of religion upon Egypt.

For more than a millennium, the Ancient Egyptians

worshipped a pantheon
of gods and goddesses.

Their ruler was Amun-Ra, whom Egypt'’s ruling priests revered

as the King of the Gods.

Pharaoh Amenhotep outlawed
worship of Amun-Ra and

closed down his temples.

Across Egypt, he erased the
old gods and replaced them

with a single deity:
the Sun God, Aten.

The only human figures left, bathing in the Sun God'’s rays,

were Amenhotep, now
transformed into Akhenaten

and his queen, Nefertiti.

On the faded inscription
in the quarry,

Maria spots another detail.

MARIA: You'’ve got
the Sun disc here.

NARRATOR: The Sun, the
god of the new religion,

alongside Akhenaten'’s
earlier name.

MARIA: Clearly an early
sign of the Aten worship.

We can'’t find anything similar
to this anywhere else in Egypt.

It'’s the earliest
one that we have.

We haven'’t published it yet,
it'’s on its way.

NARRATOR: This discovery dates the quarry to the early reign

of Akhenaten and Nefertiti,
but it doesn'’t solve

the mystery of why they were
quarrying so much stone.

What were they making?

400 miles north at
Saqqara, husband and wife

archaeologists Mohamed Megahed and Hana Vymazalova

are back for another
season of excavation.

Last year, they made an
astonishing rare discovery:

a tomb dating back
over 4,000 years,

in pristine condition.

MOHAMED: The day
we enter the tomb,

it was unforgettable
day for all of us.

NARRATOR: It belongs
to a man called Khuwy,

a high official of Pharaoh
Djedkhare who lived

1,000 years before Nefertiti.

Khuwy may even be a member
of the royal family.

It'’s a spectacular find,
but there'’s a mystery.

MOHAMED: Usually, ancient
Egyptians were buried with

their wives in their tombs.

In our case, we
have only Khuwy.

NARRATOR: Khuwy'’s wife should
be buried with her husband,

but she isn'’t.

She is missing,
just like Nefertiti,

and Mohamed wants to find her.

MOHAMED: It means we
will be looking for
perhaps similar tomb,

maybe much bigger tomb,
the same quality of reliefs

for his wife.

NARRATOR: Her tomb should be as magnificent as Khuwy'’s itself.

MOHAMED: Why people love
Egypt and love ancient Egypt?

Because it'’s full of
secrets and magic.

For example, Queen Nefertiti,
her tomb was never found.

NARRATOR: Family members from this time are generally buried

close together, so Khuwy'’s
wife must be nearby.

MOHAMED: We still need to go
a little bit deeper in the

west side to make sure
that there is no other
entrance for a corridor,

or we have to look around for
another shaft in the mastaba.

NARRATOR: A mastaba is a
massive flat-topped structure

that ancient Egyptians
built over tombs.

Digging deeper, Mohamed finds
a possible clue to another

entrance: the pure white rock
finish of the mastaba changes

to a different kind of rock.

MOHAMED: This is
the white, nice,

limestone and in the bottom
it'’s completely local

limestone, exactly like
the entrance of Khuwy.

NARRATOR: Local limestone
surrounds the entrance to
Khuwy'’s tomb.

The same stone here could
mark another entrance to

his wife'’s burial chamber.

MOHAMED: So the plan for today
is to clear it all, go deeper,

reach the floor.

We hope to find something, and
you never know what the sands

of Egypt might hide.

NARRATOR: Could the
team be on the brink of
another major discovery?

NARRATOR: Mohamed found
Khuwy'’s tomb last year.

It dates to a time
called the Old Kingdom,

1,000 years
before Nefertiti.

The tomb of Khuwy'’s missing
wife could be every bit as

spectacular as her husband'’s.

MOHAMED: This is one of the
most important and interesting

tomb in Old Kingdom.

NARRATOR: The scenes
help Khuwy on his
journey to the afterlife.

An offering wall gives
instructions for 95 different

offering rituals, jars
of beer, bread, meat.

MOHAMED: There is no
mention for the wife because

everything underground
here is for Khuwy.

NARRATOR: She is not
with him on the walls,

but she is family.

Her tomb shouldn'’t
be far away.

Outside, Mohamed'’s
own wife, Hana,

is also helping in the
search for Khuwy'’s wife.

HANA: We hope that we
might find Khuwy'’s wife.

At the moment we are in
the area which is directly

opposite to the
entrance to the tomb.

NARRATOR: They
must dig carefully,

as the sand is full
of ancient fragments.

Each one could
be a vital clue.

These are not just bones, it looks like a complete skeleton.

Has Hana discovered
Khuwy'’s wife?

At Gebel El-Silsila John and Maria are on a mission to find

the purpose of the quarry.

The stone could reveal
important clues about

Akhenaten and Nefertiti'’s
building projects,

and the ambition
of their reign.

MARIA: Wow!
This is beautiful.

Look at the block work.

You can see perfect
talatat blocks.

NARRATOR: As workers
clear the area,

they reveal evidence of a
building innovation that

Akhenaten and
Nefertiti pioneered.

MARIA: Here we
got a small block,

they divided it into two and
at the end of that you'’ll have

two perfect talatat blocks.

JOHN: They'’re ready to come
through here aren'’t they?

MARIA: Yeah, exactly.

NARRATOR: These small
blocks, called talatat,

could be quarried quicker
and built with faster.

JOHN: This is from the
period of Akhenaten where
everything'’s changed.

We'’ve gone from massive one
ton block down to the small,

minuscule talatat, which
is famous for Akhenaten.

It only weighed 60 kilograms.

You could carry it
on your shoulder.

NARRATOR: John and Maria have
solved the mystery of what

Akhenaten and Nefertiti
quarried here.

It was talatat, key to
an ambitious plan and an

important clue that they began a huge construction program,

including the building of
their new capital, Amarna.

Using the newly-invented
talatat blocks,

the city rose from the
desert in record time.

Akhenaten built a lavish
palace for himself and

Nefertiti in the center
and two vast temples.

Thousands gathered here to
worship the Sun God Aten as

the sun moved east to west.

Spread around the outside were hundreds of stone tables for

lavish offerings to their god.

This monumental complex gave
Akhenaten and Nefertiti total

control over
religion in Egypt.

But the city'’s most famous resident, Queen Nefertiti,

is missing.

Could the city itself
hold clues to her fate?

At Amarna, Anna heads beyond the city limits to investigate

a cemetery for Amana'’s elite.

Tombs, richly decorated with
pictures of the king and

queen, might still
reveal vital evidence.

The royal couple seem to
be in a land of paradise.

They ride their chariots.

They hand out gifts
to their adoring crowds...

and make lavish offerings
to the Sun God, the Aten.

ANNA: What'’s really lovely
here is that you can see that

one of the Aten rays
extends to Akhenaten,

the symbol of life, the Ankh.

So the Aten is providing
the king with life.

NARRATOR: So, did the
couple live out their
lives in this utopia?

The idyllic scenes also
bear marks of violence.

ANNA: The faces of the king
and queen seem to have been

deliberately hacked out.

It'’s actually being done
to obliterate their image.

NARRATOR: Nefertiti
and Akhenaten'’s

great religiousrevolution
has been destroyed.

NARRATOR: Anna finds more
evidence that Akhenaten and

Nefertiti'’s revolution ends
with a backlash against them.

ANNA: There were
deliberate attempts to
forget Akhenaten'’s reign.

He was essentially erased
from Egyptian history.

NARRATOR: Nefertiti'’s fate
during this time of trouble

is a mystery.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti
ruled for 17 years.

But when the pharaoh died, the unpopular religion that he

imposed on Egypt crumbled.

People of Egypt returned to
the old traditional gods that

Akhenaten had banned.

The enemies of the Aten
religion set out to destroy

every memory of
the king and queen.

Their revenge on
Akhenaten was to attempt
to rub him out of history.

But what happened
to Nefertiti?

ANNA: This is still
part of the tomb.

It'’s completely unfinished,
presumably because the city

was abandoned.

The king had died.

Everyone had to
uproot, leave the city.

Akhenaten'’s vision
ultimately failed.

NARRATOR: In the heat of this
crisis, where was the queen?

ANNA: One of the
big questions is,

"What happened to Nefertiti?"

If she was still living
after Akhenaten'’s death,

she can'’t have stayed on
at Amarna very much longer.

Where did she go?
What happened to Nefertiti?

NARRATOR: In Luxor,
Egyptologist Chris Naunton is

also on the trail of
the missing queen.

He has come to the
ancient city of Thebes,

where Nefertiti was born,
to the tomb of a priest.

CHRIS: This is normally closed
to the public, so he'’s having

to take the seal off and then
we'’ll be able to go inside.

NARRATOR: In the tomb, he
wants to find clues to what

might have happened
to Nefertiti following

Akhenaten'’s death.

In his final years,
did the king replace
her with a new queen?

Or did she remain
his great royal wife,

but flee into hiding
after he died?

Was Nefertiti assassinated
following Akhenaten'’s death,

or did she continue as queen?

The tomb belongs to a
priest called Pa-iri,

who lived in the
time of Nefertiti.

CHRIS: This is Pa-iri
himself, with his wife
standing behind him.

It'’s really lovely, this.

NARRATOR: But something
else catches Chris'’s eye:

ancient graffiti.

CHRIS: It'’s highly
significant.

It begins with a year
date, year three,

and then "The king of
upper and lower Egypt,"

and that king is named as
Ankhkheperure Neferneferuaten.

NARRATOR: So, just
who was this ruler?

CHRIS: And this king is
little-known, shadowy figure.

I think Ankhkheperure
Neferneferuaten is

none other than Nefertiti.

NARRATOR: This would be
a sensational turnaround.

Could Nefertiti have survived
the death of Akhenaten,

actually to succeed him
herself as Pharaoh Nefertiti?

It'’s a theory but,
if Chris is correct,

the search for Nefertiti is no longer the search for a queen.

It'’s the search for a pharaoh.

At Saqqara, husband and
wife archaeologists,

Mohamed and Hana,
are searching for the
missing wife of Khuwy.

She should be buried
with her husband in his

magnificent tomb,
but she isn'’t.

They believe that
she must be nearby,

and Hana has found
human remains.

HANA: The skeleton is very
nicely preserved even though

many of the bones
are fragmented.

NARRATOR: The teeth show
that this is a mature adult.

HANA: You can see the
upper part of the teeth
is quite worn down.

The skeleton itself shows that
the health of this individual

was not very good.

NARRATOR: Could this
ancient skeleton be the
missing wife of Khuwy?

HANA: The pit is hewn in
a little bit dark sand,

and it was filled with
very pure yellow sand,

which was added there into the
pit together with the burial.

NARRATOR: For Hana,

all the signs
are of a poor burial.

HANA: We are learning a lot
about the people of the past:

the way they lived,
how they suffered.

It'’s a little bit like
looking into a very old
album of your family.

NARRATOR:
It'’s not Khuwy'’s wife,

but families are normally
buried close together.

She should be buried nearby.

Just yards away, Mohamed
continues the search for

another tomb entrance.

MOHAMED: We have to continue
digging down into the floor

and keep looking for our lady,

Khuwy'’s wife and, if we'’re
lucky, we will have her.

NARRATOR: In Luxor, at Asasif, Fathi and Sayed have found a

wooden coffin in the cemetery
of the rich and powerful from

the era of Nefertiti.

They are anxious to free it
from the grip of the sand.

SAYED: It'’s good.

NARRATOR: Sayed digs a little
deeper to see underneath it.

NARRATOR: A complete ancient
coffin is a major find.

NARRATOR: But they have
a lot of work before
they can get it out.

SAYED: Hey doctor, I
think we found another
something very important.

FATHI: Yeah? Wow!

NARRATOR: There
seems to be something
buried with the coffin.

NARRATOR: Sayed thinks the
vase may have contained

offerings for the afterlife.

But something else
catches Fathi'’s attention.

[speaking native language]

FATHI: No.

NARRATOR:
This appears to be bread,

untouched for 3,500 years.

NARRATOR: The objects around the ancient coffin appear to

be offerings, carefully placed as supplies for the deceased.

NARRATOR: It offers rare, hard evidence of the lives and

beliefs of Ancient Egyptians, about death and the afterlife.

SAYED: Complete.

FATHI: Wow.

NARRATOR: The pot
also comes out.

If they can date it,
they can date the burial,

and begin to piece together
who might be in the coffin.

NARRATOR: The 18th
dynasty was when Egypt
was at its very peak,

with the line of
powerful pharaohs that

included Akhenaten and
Nefertiti themselves.

After two hours
of careful work,

they finally clear
away all the debris.

NARRATOR: But the fragile
ancient wood could

disintegrate now it is
exposed to the elements.

Fathi doesn'’t want to risk
leaving it out any longer,

so he must move it quickly.

In Saqqara, outside the
magnificent tomb of Khuwy

that Mohamed found last year,

the team searches for a
missing person, Khuwy'’s wife.

Her tomb should be
equally spectacular.

Following clues
in the limestone,

they have shifted several
tons of sand searching for

another tomb entrance.

Now there are huge
limestone blocks in the way.

Mohamed thinks that these
came from the mastaba,

the stone structure
above the tomb.

Again, it is pure white.

[shouting]

MOHAMED: White limestone
are very precious,

because in ancient Egypt the
quarry belonged to the king.

The king himself had to give
permission to any individual,

any official, to cut
stones from there.

NARRATOR: It'’s a vital clue.

Only the pharaoh'’s innermost circle would be allowed to use

such a precious rock.

With the limestone
blocks out of the way,

they soon reach the bedrock
and can go no further.

MOHAMED: We had no clue for
the other entrance of the wife.

This can tell us she might be
buried in a different mastaba,

separate mastaba, near to him.

NARRATOR: Khuwy'’s
wife isn'’t here,

but Mohamed is undeterred.

He believes that
she must be nearby.

MOHAMED: All the white
limestone he used in his tomb,

he was mummified, the colors
he used in the underground'’s

architecture of his tomb.

NARRATOR: The evidence
implies that Khuwy is royal.

MOHAMED: Perhaps, also
his wife was a member
of the royal family.

If she'’s not buried
with him in the tomb,

it means she decided to
made a tomb for herself.

This can tell us so
much about her status.

NARRATOR: Khuwy'’s wife must be important enough to build her

own mastaba tomb,

which should be
as glorious as Khuwy'’s.

The hunt for Khuwy'’s
wife just got bigger.

MOHAMED: We only found 30
or 40% of ancient Egyptian

monuments, and this might be
true because the sand of Egypt

still hides so many secrets.

NARRATOR: Mohamed'’s search for the missing wife continues.

In Luxor, at Asasif.

[speaking native language]

NARRATOR: The team
urgently needs to move the

newly discovered coffin
to a safe store room.

But it is a dangerous moment
for the priceless artifact,

as the ancient wood could disintegrate under the strain.

It'’s a big
responsibility for Fathi.

NARRATOR: The fragile
coffin is on the move,

but the last part of the journey is the most precarious.

It'’s a steep
and narrow descent.

[applause]

[laughing]

NARRATOR: The coffin
is still in one piece.

NARRATOR: With the coffin
now safely in the field lab,

specialist conservator Ahmed
Gad must inspect the wood for

any weakness.

NARRATOR: The coffin appears to be in good enough condition

to be opened, but there'’s
another problem for Fathi.

NARRATOR: The 3,500-year-old
ropes must come off,

but the ancient
fibers are stiff.

If the alcohol solution
doesn'’t soften them,

they may have to cut them.

-FATHI: Wow!
-AHMED: Wow!

FATHI: Very good.

NARRATOR: The knot undone,

they begin the slow task
of removing plaster

that sticks the fragile lid
to the coffin.

Fathi gets
his first glimpse inside.

NARRATOR: He can see
the mummy inside,

but he can only
watch on anxiously.

NARRATOR: The wedges
slowly push the lid up.

The 3,500-year-old wood could
disintegrate at any moment.

FATHI: Wow.

NARRATOR: Masks protect against any ancient diseases.

[speaking native language]

FATHI: OK.

NARRATOR: For the first
time, they lay eyes on what'’s

clearly a human form wrapped
in plain linen that was woven

30 centuries ago.

NARRATOR: The team prepares
the mummy for the next stage

of research, where x-rays will reveal more of its secrets:

its age, gender,
cause of death.

This rare find is full of clues and vital evidence that

will help Fathi and other
archaeologists understand how

people were buried during
the time of Nefertiti.

In Luxor...

the idea that Nefertiti
became pharaoh

is now widely accepted,

but it radically alters the
hunt for the missing queen.

Chris thinks that it can
only lead to one conclusion.

He has come to the famous
Valley of the Kings
to investigate.

CHRIS: If Nefertiti
did become pharaoh,

and if she also made the
move back here to Thebes from

Amarna, then there'’s only
really one place here where we

could expect her to
have been buried,

and that'’s right
in this place,

in the Valley of the Kings.

NARRATOR: If she lies here
in the Valley of the Kings,

could other tombs hold clues
to help Chris find her?

CHRIS: The tomb
just goes on and on.

NARRATOR: Passages and chambers extend over 600 feet,

deep into the rock.

CHRIS: The tombs in the
Valley of the Kings are all

different, but
they'’re monumental,

very large grand spaces,
with long corridors,

multiple chambers
leading off them.

If Nefertiti had a tomb in
the Valley of the Kings,

you'’ve got to think that it
would have been like this one.

NARRATOR: If this
tomb is a guide

to how Nefertiti'’s
tomb might be,

how could it have escaped
detection for all this time?

Where could
Nefertiti be hiding?

In search of answers, Chris heads for the most famous tomb

in the Valley of the Kings:
King Tutankhamun'’s.

He was the first pharaoh
known to be buried here

after Nefertiti'’s reign.

CHRIS: This tomb
is a real oddity.

When you think about how
famous Tutankhamun is,

the tomb itself just
somehow doesn'’t fit.

It'’s really small by
comparison with the

other tombs in the
Valley of the Kings.

There'’s something just
not quite right here.

NARRATOR: There are many
things about Tutankhamun'’s

tomb that don'’t add up.

The entrance to the
tomb turns right,

when for a male pharaoh it
should be a turn to the left.

Tutankhamun'’s nested coffins

have double cobras
and vulture headdresses,

normally only associated
with female coffins.

And the most famous icon
in Egyptian archaeology,

the magnificent golden
death mask of Tutankhamun,

reveals earring holes.

And, while Tut'’s name is
engraved on the shoulder,

hidden beneath it are faint
traces of the cartouche of

Ankhkheperure
Neferneferuaten or Nefertiti.

Could Tutankhamun
have been buried with
Nefertiti'’s death mask

in a small side chamber
of a hidden bigger
tomb meant for her?

Chris continues
to investigate.

CHRIS: There'’s another side
chamber called the treasury.

Some of the items in here,
although they apparently

depict the king, had
very feminine features.

It'’s possible that, actually,
some of Tutankhamun'’s objects

and maybe even this tomb
were originally prepared for

someone else, maybe
even Nefertiti.

NARRATOR: But why
would Tutankhamun

be in Nefertiti'’s tomb?

When Akhenaten died,

his cult of the Sun God
Aten wasoverthrown

and the old gods,
led by Amun, were restored.

Nefertiti may have ruled
then as the Pharaoh,

until Akhenaten'’s son,
9-year-old Tutankhaten,

ascended the throne and
changed his name to honor

Amun, becoming Tutankhamun.

CHRIS: We know that
Tutankhamun died at
a very young age,

he was perhaps 18 years old,

and so perhaps he died
unexpectedly and, if so,

then perhaps his tomb
was prepared in a hurry.

NARRATOR: It'’s possible that Tutankhamun'’s officials

used a tomb prepared for
his stepmother, Nefertiti.

CHRIS: That might help us
to explain why, perhaps,

a relatively small tomb
was so crammed full of such

a hotch-potch of items.

Everything had to be done
far more quickly

than the authorities
were expecting.

NARRATOR: And it could
finally explain where

Nefertiti herself is buried.

CHRIS: Is it possible that she'’s
even still here somewhere?

NARRATOR: The tomb of Tutankhamun is the greatest

archaeological
discovery of all time.

Its greatest prize,
its treasure.

But could there be a greater lost treasure hidden beside it?

The search for one of
Egypt'’s most famous queens

could be about to end here
in the Valley of the Kings.

Captioned by Cotter
Captioning Services.