Here are facts you should know about King Tut!
6 - King at age 9
Before King Tutankhamen was King Tut, he was a young prince named Tutankhaten, his name
meaning the “living image of Aten”.
Aten is basically the sun, and can be connected with the sun God Ra.
The little prince Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun when he became the king.
Tutankhamun means "Living Image of Amun" with Amun being the King of the gods and the god
of the wind.
When he was just seven years old, his father, the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, was forced
to step down from the throne, because he basically sucked.
About two years after he left his throne, he died.
At that point young King Tut ascended to the throne at just nine years old, which was of
course a lot of responsibility for a small child.
Chances are, he had a group of advisors to give him a hand in running the country.
Most scholars think that a general by the name of Horemheb and a Grand Vizier named
Ay were the two guys really running the show.
Based on accounts written by General Horemheb, King Tut was apparently prone to angry outbursts,
but the general had a way of soothing him whenever he lost his temper.
In other words, it’s probably a good thing for the people of Egypt that he had some adult
supervision during his reign.
Because of health problems, King Tut died when he about 18 years old, meaning he probably
never had any real control over his own Pharaohship.
Or is it Pharao hood?
Pharoness?
You know what I mean.
5 - How was his Reign?
Generally speaking, an average reign by a young emperor three thousand years ago wouldn’t
give uppity scholars much to talk about.
Given how much attention King Tut’s tomb has had over the last century, it’s remarkable
how little actually happened during his roughly decade-long reign.
Ruling from about 1332 until 1323 BC, King Tut made one important change thing during
his rule, which was transitioning back to Egypt’s more traditional polytheistic religious
system.
His father banned the practice of worshiping Egypt’s traditional Gods, and instead centered
their religious beliefs around the Sun God Aten.
This didn’t go over so well, because people just generally don’t like it when someone
messes with their religion.
On the advice of his advisors, King Tut restored Egypt’s polytheistic practices, and proceeded
to restore rights to all the traditional priests who had lost power under his father and reopened
all the old temples that his father had shut down.
He also oversaw extensive building projects, which was likely the ideas of his his advisors,
unless he was a prodigy in urban planning.
His reign also saw the restoration of diplomatic relationships with surrounding countries,
mostly because everyone hated his dad.
But not much else is really known about his time as the ruler of Egypt.
After King Tut died at around age 18, his advisor Ay took over.
After that, it was Horemheb’s turn to rule the land.
Horemheb proceeded to remove Tutankhamun and Akhenaten’s names from monuments and had
his own name inscribed instead.
It seems that the most significant part of Tut’s reign was the removal of his father’s
policies.
Akhenaten was so unpopular, that in the years following him stepping down from the throne
and subsequent death, his statues and monuments were all destroyed.
The city Amarna that he built to worship the God Aten was abandoned.
If not for the discovery of the city of Amarna and the tomb of King Tut, both rulers would
likely have been largely lost to history.
Soon after the death of King Tut, the 18th Egyptian Dynasty came to an end.
The 19th Dynasty of Egypt was remembered much better.
Many people think that Ramses II was the Pharaoh from the Bible when Moses led his people out
of captivity.
Long story short, King Tut is more famous for the discovery of his tomb, than he is
for anything he actually did while ruling Egypt.
4 - He Married who?!
As you might have guessed, things were quite different in Ancient Egypt.
Back then, incest among the ruling families was a pretty regular thing.
So much so, that our friend King Tut was a product of 1ncest.
Based on some DNA testing, It’s believed that his father, the remarkably unpopular
Pharaoh, had relations with his sister, who became pregnant with King Tut.
It’s not that the Egyptians were completely depraved.
They did this because the royal family believed they were descendants of gods and they wanted
to maintain a pure bloodline.
They obviously didn’t have all the advanced medical science that teaches about genetic
diversity.
Continuing this trend, King Tut later married one of his half sisters.
We don’t know a lot about their marriage.
We have no clue if they had anything in common, aside from their ancestry.
No one knows for sure whether or not it was a happy marriage.
But they’re believed to have had two kids together, both of whom died in the womb.
Again, modern science could have probably prevented this from happening.
The fetuses of both children were found buried in his tomb with him.
3 - How did he die?
Just as little is known about his life and reign, circumstances surrounding his death
are also mysterious.
For a while, it was believed that he might have been assassinated, because 18-year olds
don’t just go that easily.
To support this theory, his mummy was discovered with a damaged skull.
So the idea that his head was bashed in during some sort of brutal assassination would make
sense and seem like an intriguing prospect.
On top of all of that, when his tomb was found, it was small and relatively simple for a person
of his status.
That leads experts to believe that maybe he died unexpectedly before a better tomb could
be built.
However, in recent years, a more plausible although less exciting theory has been getting
traction.
Based on CT scans that were performed in 2005, it was discovered that he suffered a broken
leg that later became infected.
The thinking here is that the infection could have caused him to ultimately die.
Further forensics on King Tut painted a picture of his health, and well, he was a sickly child
to say the least.
He was found to have suffered from an array of diseases, such as malaria, sickle cell
disease, and Kohler disease.
Many historians and scientists attribute his poor health to the fact that he was part of
a remarkably incestous bloodline.
Had he been born in better circumstances, he would have had a chance at a healthier
and longer life.
2 - The Discovery
November 4, 1922.
That’s the day that King Tut went from being an obscure boy king, lost to the annuls of
history and decay, to one of the most famous and hyped up emperors in the history of the
Egyptian Empire.
A team of archeologists led by Howard Carter made the discovery on that fateful day.
Employed by George Herbert the 5th, also known as Lord Carnarvon, Carter was exploring the
valley of the kings when he found the tomb.
The tomb was remarkably intact, along with King Tut’s death mask, which is now featured
at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
King Tut was relatively unknown to the general public at the time, but Carter knew about
him.
While many of the tombs of other Egyptian emperors had been found, King Tut’s tomb
had been elusive to archaeologists.
Carter and his teams spent years searching for the tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but
to no avail.
That was until Carter and his workmen found some steps hidden by debris leading into the
ground.
Unless you’ve discovered an ancient tomb before, then you may be surprised how much
of a process uncovering everything is.
For one thing, it took them a while to uncover the steps.
Then they had to hide their discovery and watch guard over the entrance to ensure that
it remained untouched while Carter made preparations to enter the tomb.
Informing Lord Carnarvon, was a top priority before they did much else.
As the guy bankrolling the whole operation, Lord Carnarvon was to be present when they
finally entered the tomb.
It was about three weeks later when they finally uncovered all 16 steps to find the sealed
door of the tomb.
Once Inside they found a four room tomb, that had remained in near perfect condition after
more than three thousand years later.
It appeared though that the tomb had been robbed twice in antiquity, and though some
of the objects in the tomb were in disarray, most everything else seemed to be in good
condition.
The team then set about an arduous process of documenting every item found in the tomb.
They’d find an item, which there were thousands of, document it, wrap it in gauze, and carry
the items out on a stretcher.
By this point, word was out that the tomb had been found, and people from all over gathered
to witness the spectacle.
The hype that the discovery caused was unbelievable.
The discovery of this tomb sparked a renewed interest in ancient Egypt.
Plus, Carter became pretty famous after the find.
He received all kinds of fan mail, and people all over the world eagerly awaited news updates
about the discovery.
Even Egyptian style clothing and architecture saw a huge rise in popularity.
To this day, the discovery is widely regarded as one of the most important archaeological
finds of the 20th century.
Not only were thousands of artifacts discovered in the tomb, as were the mummies of Tut’s
wife and stillborn children, but the discovery allowed scientists to conduct years worth
of studies.
Carter himself studied the findings in the tomb for 10 years!
Indeed, the discovery of King Tut’s tomb changed the way we currently view the ancient
Egyptian world.
In 2015, Nicholas Reeves, director of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project, proposed the idea
that a hidden chamber inside King Tut's tomb contained the tomb of Queen Nefertiti.
Ground-penetrating radar scans carried out supposedly showed evidence of a hidden chamber
behind this wall.
However, in May 2016, a National Geographic team conducted another set of ground-penetrating
radar scans.Those scans showed no hidden chambers in King Tut's tomb.
Are there actually more chambers to be discovered?!
Let me know by voting in the poll!
1 - The Legend of the Curse There’s long been a belief that anyone who
disturbs the mummy of an ancient Egyptian will be cursed.
Known as the Curse of the Pharaohs, proponents of this belief think you’re basically screwed
if you disturb the tomb of a Pharaoh.
Bad luck, poor health, and even death are associated with the supposed curse.
Obviously, King Tut’s tomb was very much disturbed in 1922 after its discovery.
About four months after the opening of the tomb, Lord Carnarvon died under very bizarre
circumstances.
It started when he was bitten by a mosquito.
Later, while he was shaving, he accidentally slashed the bite with his razor.
Believe it or not, is what ultimately caused his death.
The bite became infected and he died of blood poisoning on April 5th, 1923.
A story in the New York Times asserted that quote “dire punishment” would haunt anyone
who disturbed the tomb.
To add fuel to the speculation, Carnarvon's half brother, Colonel Aubrey Herbert, soon
lost his vision.
On the advice of someone stupid, he had all of his teeth removed, believing it would restore
his vision.
Surprisingly, THAT didn’t work.
Instead, he got blood poisoning as well and died on September 26, 1923.
And as if THAT’S not crazy enough, Lord Carnarvon’s OTHER half brother, also died
in 1929.
He contracted malarial pneumonia.
The deaths are easily explained using medical science and common sense.
But for people scared of curses, these deaths might have seemed just a bit too coincidental.
Other deaths that believers in the curse have blamed on the tomb include George Jay Gould.
He visited the tomb in 1923 and contracted a fever while he was there.
He died on the French Riviera on May 16, 1923.
Sir Lee Stack, the governor general of Sudan visited the tomb once.
He was assassinated in 1924 in Cairo.
Carter’s personal secretary, Richard Bethell died in 1929 when someone smothered him in
his sleep.
A few months later, his father jumped off the 7th floor of an apartment building.
Carter himself died, over a decade later, in 1939 from lymphoma.
As odd as it sounds, people attributed the curse to his death.
For the most part, the curse can be debunked.
For centuries people spread rumors about curses involving disturbing tombs, because grave
robbing was a problem in many societies.
So people made up stories about curses to scare off grave robbers.
But that hasn’t stopped grave robbers, and it hasn't stopped people who should know better
for indulging in these type of theories.
Movies and books chronicle such curses, and the odd circumstances surrounding people involved
in the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, all have done its part in adding to this myth.
However, my question is, what about all the people that worked on the tomb or visited
the tomb, and nothing has happened?!