“Expedition Unknown” to Reveal the Face of King Tut’s Mom

The Travel Channel will be revealing the face of King Tut’s mother for the first time in a special historic forensic reconstruction project.  The trailblazing endeavor will be featured in a two-part special of the network’s popular series “Expedition Unknown” with Josh Gates. It will air on Wednesday, February 7 and February 14 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.  The unusual sculpture provides an accurate depiction of her likeness in life and strengthens the theory that the 3,400-year-old mummy of King Tut’s biological mother, nicknamed the “Younger Lady,” is also Queen Nefertiti.

During these special episodes, Gates will investigate three of the most powerful and elusive women in ancient Egypt – Hatshepsut, Cleopatra and Nefertiti.  A special hour-long special, “Expedition Unknown: After the Hunt,” will premiere at 10 p.m. ET/PT, immediately following each episode. The after-specials will revisit Gates’ expeditions as he and his team of experts “dig deeper into their astounding findings, further analyze key evidence and reveal never-before-seen footage from the expedition.”

Gates and the “Expedition Unknown” team, along with noted Egyptologist Dr. Aidan Dodson of Bristol University, received permission from Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities and The Egyptian Museum to remove the protective glass case covering the mummy to examine her further. They used the latest 3D imaging technology to the mummy’s face in order to digitally map and create a replica of her head. With this model and forensic analysis, paleo artist Elisabeth Daynès, known for her recreation of King Tut in 2005, sculpted a lifelike bust of the Younger Lady’s face. The result was then analyzed against well-known images of Queen Nefertiti.

“This remarkable face seems to be consistent with ancient representations of Nefertiti,” said Dodson. “It’s extraordinary. When taken alongside the latest reading of the genetic data, this provides us with truly exciting evidence that the mummy of the Younger Lady is none other than Queen Nefertiti herself.”

“Nefertiti is remembered as one of the most beautiful women in history, but her accomplishments are anything but skin deep,” said Gates. “She was a powerful pharaoh and ruled during one of the most prosperous times in the ancient world. But like many of history’s most important female figures, her legacy has been obscured.”

Gates added, “This is a unique and exciting moment that allows us to look into the past and help restore the dignity of an incredibly significant woman. The bone structure and the features are remarkably consistent with ancient depictions. I believe this is the true face of Nefertiti.” 

The badly damaged mummy of the Younger Lady was uncovered in a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in 1898, and shown through DNA evidence in 2010, to be King Tut’s biological mother. Tut’s father was the pharaoh Akhenaten, who was married to Nefertiti. It has therefore been theorized that this mummy could be the remains of the legendary queen, whose body has never been positively identified.

“This project is very special and very complex,” said artist Elisabeth Daynès. “I worked closely with forensic paleo pathologists and anthropologists to determine accurate muscle, skin and soft tissue depth. Everything was meticulously calculated by hand.

“In all, it took more than 500 hours to create the bust. Even the jewelry on the bust was handcrafted by designers who work for Dior,” adds Daynès. “When you overlay the profile of the reconstruction with the famous Berlin Bust of Nefertiti, they are an incredibly close match.”

“Expedition Unknown,” one of Travel Channel’s most popular series, follows host Josh Gates around the world as he searches for answers to some of the world’s greatest legends and stories. Visit TravelChannel.com for more on “Expedition Unknown.” Follow @TravelChannel and #ExpeditionUnknown for exclusive content and updates. Follow host Josh Gates on Twitter: @joshuagates and on Instagram:@gatesygram.

Debe Branning

Debe Branning has been the director of the MVD Ghostchasers–a Mesa/Bisbee, AZ based paranormal team since 1994. The team conducts investigations of haunted, historical locations throughout Arizona and has offered paranormal workshop/investigations since 2002. Debe has been a guest lecturer at Ottawa University, Central Arizona College, Arizona State University, Scottsdale Community College, and South Mountain Community College. She has been a speaker at science fiction conventions such as Phoenix ComiCon, CopperCon, FiestaCon, HauntedCon and AZParacon. Debe has been the guest speaker at many historical societies and libraries talking about historic/haunted Arizona.

She has appeared in an episode of “Streets of Fear” for FearNet.com which aired October 2009 and on an episode of TRAVEL CHANNEL’S “Ghost Stories” about haunted Jerome, Arizona in July 2010. She recently appeared as an extra in the 2017 horror movie “The Covenant”. She enjoys assisting in the research field for various Travel Channel TV shows such as ‘Ghost Stories’, ‘Haunted Highway’, and ‘Deadly Possessions’ and MTV’s ‘Fear’. She has traveled, toured and investigated at haunted locations across the United States, England, Scotland, Ireland and Mexico.

Debe is the author of “Sleeping With Ghosts-A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to AZ’s Haunted Hotels and Inns” (2004), “Grand Canyon Ghost Stories” (2012), “The Graveyard Shift–Arizona’s Historic and Haunted Cemeteries” (2012), “Dining With the Dead–Arizona’s Historic and Haunted Restaurants and Cafes” (2017) and a series of three children’s books, “The Adventures of Chickolet Pigolet: 1. “The Bribe of Frankenbeans” —-2. “Murmur on the Oink Express” —-3. “You Ought to be in Pig-tures”. For 7 years Debe penned 3 columns for Examiner.com titled: “Phoenix Travel Adventures,” “Arizona Haunted Sites” and “Haunted Places” so travelers could know where they might find a ghost or two when they visited Arizona and the United States. She was the Managing Editor of “Paranormal Investigator Magazine.” As a paranormal travel writer, Debe traveled to Europe to cover haunted castles, jails, ships, inns, cemeteries and ghost walking tours. She has been the guest of several US tourism departments such as Carlsbad, Historic Hotels of the Rockies, Salem, and Biloxi.

Debe is a preservation activist with a special interest in preserving historic cemeteries. She is on the board of directors of the Pioneers’ Cemetery Association and the Arizona Genealogical Advisory Board. She is also one of the co-hosts of the Association of Gravestones Studies in Arizona.