[CRUNCH] 10 AMAZING Secret Passageways Discoveries in Egypt
Ancient Egypt was all sorts of mysterious, and the rulers of the time surely knew how
to keep a secret. For thousands of years, many ancient Egyptian structures had secret
passageways constructed underneath them, which were used for various purposes!
5. Tomb of King Tut
Tutankhamun is one of the most famous pharaohs in Egyptian history, otherwise known simply as
King Tut. King Tut came into power at the age of nine, and was the last ruler of the 18th Egyptian
dynasty. Some of the most famous ancient Egyptian artifacts can be traced back to the rule of King
Tut, and artifacts from his rule managed to reach each and every corner of Europe during the peak of
Egyptomania. This led to King Tut becoming sort of a cult figure in Europe, and he gained a devoted
following among Egypt enthusiasts in Europe and across the world. However, one thing they could
never find was the tomb of King Tut himself. Many European explorers, which included some of the
richest men in the world, paid big money in order to be the person to “finally get” King Tut’s tomb,
but even after hundreds of years of searching, they still couldn’t find his tomb.
They did manage to find a lot of King Tut’s belongings, which were auctioned off to the
European elite, as well as to museums across the world, for millions of dollars in today’s money.
But the King Tut fanatics finally had their moment when in 1907, while searching for more evidence
relating to King Tut’s final resting place, a team of archeologists came across a site that
contained some funerary artifacts bearing King Tut’s name, and they knew that the King himself
wouldn’t be far away. It wasn’t all smooth sailing from there as for years, they found no success in
their search until finally in 1922, a waterboy for the archeologists who had nothing to do with the
search itself tripped over a stone, which revealed the top of a flight of stairs. Further digging
revealed a secret passageway that led directly to the tomb of King Tut. Before the tomb, there was a
door that had King Tut’s name on it, but the team noticed that the door had already been breached
twice. While the mummy of King Tut was finally revealed the breach still remains unexplained.
4. Nefertiti’s Tomb?
Now that we’ve talked about King Tut’s tomb, let’s talk about another discovery that might be made
because of it, and that’s Nefertiti’s tomb. Nefertiti was the queen consort of Akhenaten,
who was a Pharaoh famous for introducing monotheism into ancient Egypt. Nefertiti
is probably most famous for her incredibly detailed bust that was crafted in 1345 B.C,
and discovered sometime in the early 20th century by German explorers. The discovery of the bust led
to a renewed interest in her history, personal life, and of course, her mummy! But after all
these years of trying, we still haven’t managed to find the tomb of Nefertiti yet, but we might
be very close. While Nefertiti was meant to be buried near her pharaoh husband in the Royal Tomb,
when archeologists excavated the site, they found no signs of Nefertiti anywhere in the tomb.
There was an empty grave that seemed to have never been used, and it was assumed that she probably
never got a chance to have a proper burial there. However, everything changed when in 2015,
while English archeologist Nicholas Reeves was conducting a scan of the Tomb of King Tut,
he actually discovered a secret passageway that continued from his tomb to, presumably,
Nefertiti’s tomb. Further scans by a Japanese team once again confirmed that
there were definitely hollow spaces behind the location of his tomb,
and the only way anyone could’ve gotten there is through secret passages. However,
the tomb still hasn’t been uncovered as it’s located in an extremely sensitive area with a lot
of restrictions on where archeologists are allowed to dig and where they’re not, this makes it almost
impossible to even begin to look for Nefertiti’s tomb in the area, and for the off-chance that
it might actually be nothing, the Egyptian authorities simply aren’t taking any risks.
3. Sphinx Passageways
The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most iconic historical sites in the entire world,
and it’s also one of the most mysterious. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the Sphinx,
including how it was made, when it was made, and who exactly made it. Even after spending
countless years researching this marvel, we still know very little about its actual history.
Nowadays, excavation work at the Sphinx is extremely limited or close to non-existent,
but some discoveries are still being made on the site, and one of the most striking ones are the
secret passageways that are underneath the Sphinx. Dr. Bettany Hughes, one of the top historians in
Britain, showed us, in 2019, a rare glimpse into what looks like a small hole at the exterior of
the Sphinx that could just fit about one person in it. This hole is usually hidden from the view of
tourists, who are restricted from getting too close to the Sphinx as they might damage it,
but this hole is something even other historians and archaeologists couldn’t predict.
Dr. Hughes believes that this hole may lead to secret chambers that are filled with treasures
and offerings that were given to the sacred Sphinx, and if properly dug through, could
actually reveal the real history of the Sphinx and why it was built. Archaeologists are slowly
working on uncovering this secret tunnel, but there are severe restrictions they have to follow
and with delays due to the pandemic, it might be a long time before we truly know what’s in there.
2. Valley of the King Tunnel
The Valley of the Kings is where some of the most important people in Egyptian history are buried.
This is actually the site where the tomb of King Tut was found, and along with him,
numerous other pharaohs were also buried here, hence the name “the valley of the kings”. This
is one of the most discovery-rich locations in all of Egypt, so there’s always some sort of
excavation going on here. Excavators had dug an entire tunnel underneath the Valley of the Kings,
but their work came to a sudden stop when they actually discovered another tunnel beneath the
valley. The tunnel seems to have begun from the tomb of Seti, an ancient pharaoh and also the
father of King Ramesses II, and after following a long path, it simply vanishes into nothing.
It’s unclear whether this is simply how much this tunnel was constructed, or whether there
was even more of the tunnel that’s either now destroyed or buried in rubble. Nonetheless,
the area the tunnel was going towards is not known for having any significant structures,
so if archaeologists can get to the bottom of this, we might be in for an amazing discovery.
1. Giza Passageways
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the defining monument of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Even by today’s standards, the Great Pyramid is an architectural marvel on its own,
and it paved the way for the modern skyscraper to stand,
even though it was built 4,500 years ago using primitive technology. With something
of this scale, you’d assume there would also be many secrets surrounding this pyramid, right?
Well, in this case, there are literally secrets hidden beneath the pyramids themselves. Thanks to
the technology we have available today, we don’t even need to start digging in order to better
understand ancient structures, we can simply use advanced cosmic-ray scanners and immediately make
out the inside of a structure. One of these projects is called the ScanPyramids project,
and it aims to completely get an understanding of what the pyramids are like from the inside
and underneath, without actually going into the restricted areas of the pyramids themselves.
ScanPyramids managed to discover a 100-foot long void that was located within the great
pyramid of Giza, which is quite unusual for a structure in ancient Egypt where space was almost
always utilized. This has led to some historians believing that this “void” may not be so empty
after all, and there are almost certainly buried passageways that may connect us to this void.
But that’s about as far as advanced scanners go, and they’re able to study the building’s structure
but not what’s inside it, so we still don’t know what’s inside the void, whether it was
intentionally made or not, or what the purpose of such a large space within the pyramid could be.
For now, archaeologists working in Egypt are trying to find a way to get into this empty void,
and only time will tell what kind of crazy things they’re going to find in there.
That’s a wrap for this video! If you enjoyed it, make sure to leave
us a like and subscribe to our channel for more videos like this! See you next time!