With her slender neck, wide eyes and high cheekbones, Egyptian queen Nefertiti has long been seen as the embodiment of female beauty.

Now, archaeologists may be close to identifying her mummy and revealing the true face of the monarch.

Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, the former minister of state for antiquities affairs in Egypt, has been excavating in tombs called KV21 and KV35 in the Valley of the Kings, in modern day Luxor.

He has found two mummies, and thinks one is Nefertiti and the other her daughter, Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamun’s wife.

Prof Hawass told Newsweek: “In October we will be able to announce the discovery of the mummy of Ankhesenamun, Tutankhamun’s wife, and her mother, Nefertiti. I am sure I will reveal which of the two unnamed mummies could be Nefertiti.”

Dr Hawass said if DNA analysis identified Nefertiti’s mummy definitively, Egypt would commission CT scans of the head that would “reveal the most complete and accurate image of the queen”. He added: “We have barely found 30pc of everything that is underground. Modern Egypt is built on the ancient. And that is why the heritage that remains hidden is immense.”

Nefertiti reigned during Egypt’s 18th dynasty and lived between roughly 1370 and 1330 BC, when Egypt was at its most powerful and prosperous. But she died during a period of social turmoil, which led to her grave site being lost.

She ruled alongside her husband Amenhotep IV, who converted the country from polytheism to a monotheistic cult dedicated to the sun’s disc, named Aton. Amenhotep changed his name to Akhenaten, meaning “beneficial to Aten”.

The changes proved unpopular, and after his father's death, Tutankhamun restored the old gods and destroyed monuments associated with Akhenaten.