The crypts were designed to deter robbers, and for the most part, they worked—which makes it difficult for today's archaeologists to find them and identify their inhabitants.

But new techniques are giving researchers a better look into the tombs. In particular, a team of radiologists and geneticists hopes to prove that an unidentified mummy known as KV21b is the long-sought Queen Nefertiti—King Tut's stepmother. Modern analysis, from CT scanning to DNA testing, is offering new clues into the history of this royal family. And after 10 years of work, the researchers Zahi Hawass and Sahar Saleem are presenting their findings in the book Scanning the Pharaohs: CT Imaging of the New Kingdom Royal Mummies.

Nineteenth-century explorers discovered two mummies in chamber KV21, which are now located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Using new techniques, the so-called Egyptian Mummy Project proved that one of them is the mother of Tut's two stillborn daughters—likely Ankhesenamun, who was Tut's only wife. "Beside her, there is a headless mummy," says co-author Zahi Hawass, who formerly held the office of Egyptian Minister of Antiquities. "We think that this mummy could be the mummy for Queen Nefertiti."