Among the many wonderful museums and galleries around the world we all have our favourites – just as we have our favourites among the exhibits in them.

In Berlin there are two which the blog has always found compelling.

The first is the bust of Nefertiti in the Neues Museum and the other is the sunken library in the Bebel Platz.

The bust was created around 1340 BCE and is the best-known exhibit in the Museum. The bust is colourfully painted and, as the Staatliche Museen of Berlin says: “Since it was placed in the North Dome rooms of the Neues Museum it has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The timeless appearance of the face has become an icon of beauty over the past 100 years.”

Ludwig Borchardt’s excavation of the bust prompted him to say: “Description is useless, must be seen”.

But now the bust has prompted the search for insights into the possibility that there are hidden chambers which are suspected to hold the remains of Nefertiti.

The Tutankhamun tomb, discovered by Howard Carter more than a century ago is visited by hundreds of thousands every year.

Jo Marchant, writing in Nature (17 September) says Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities is considering whether further investigation can be undertaken.

Marchant writes that “the researchers conducted a range of geophysical surveys including the firsts use of gravitational techniques around the site, as well as ground-penetrating radar from inside the tomb.”

So far, the search has indicated that there may be a ‘hidden complex of corridors and rooms’ that pre-date the interment of Tutankhamun.

This latest data provides some evidence that there are a previously unknown network of corridors and chambers just metres from the young Pharaoh’s tomb.

Back in 2015 Nicholas Reeves, an independent British Egyptologist, suggested that this could be Nefertiti’s resting place.

George Ballard, a structural engineer, undertook analysis of the ground-penetrating data suggested that there was a two metre wide corridor packed with rubble leading away from the burial chamber.

Researchers say the blocked passages may be filled with objects that have not been touched in more than 3,000 years.

The sunken library in Bebelplatz is, in its way, an equally amazing sight.

The memorial is based on what is missing- the 20,000 books that went up in flames there on 10 May 1933 at the behest of the Nazis.

Almost out of sight, directly under the Bebelplatz, there are no books, only empty white shelves.

What was lost and burnt were the books owned by those who the Nazis ostracised and persecuted, who had to leave the country and whose stories were no longer allowed to be told.

The bookshelves have space for around 20,000 books, as a reminder of the destruction. The Israeli artist Micha Ullman designed the library memorial, which was unveiled on 20 March 1995.