King Tut is one of the most enduring symbols of Egypt: an infamous child king that came
to represent the ancient realm of the Egyptian people and spark curiosity about what made
the empire tick.
As famous as King Tut is, there isn’t much common knowledge about him.
Here are thirteen things that you didn’t know about Egypt’s most illustrious king…
He Was Called “The Boy King” Number Thirteen: He Was Called “The Boy
King”.
King Tut is easily the most youthful Pharoah that ever lived, ascending the throne when
he was a tender nine years old!
Born in 1341 B.C.E., to royal parents, King Tut was destined for greatness- but nobody
could have guessed how soon!
While most kiddos his age were spending lazy days swimming in the Nile River, King Tut
had reign over the glorious land of ancient Egypt.
How was the proud kingdom governed by a boy who hadn’t even hit puberty?
King Tut had plenty of seasoned viziers to guide his actions, and probably exercise some
of their own influence over the empire as well.
Despite all of his juvenile shortcomings, King Tut was a well-loved and respected ruler.
We know him as “The Boy King”, but as our number twelve pick proves, it was far
from the only moniker he had!
He’s Had Many Names Number Twelve: He’s Had Many Names.
King Tut had a dizzying host of different names throughout his short life, starting
with his given name: Tutankhaten- which literally translates to “living image of Aten”.
As Aten was the Egyptian Sun God, this was quite a lofty title for the Boy King.
After King Tut took the throne, he changed his name to Tutankhamun- or “living image
of Amun”, a homage to the original gods of Egypt and an indication that King Tut’s
short reign was destined to be different from his fathers.
King Tut’s later name change was a bold move that shook up Egypt and won him loads
of additional followers, many who loved the old gods more than the new.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t escape some of the traditional ways of the ancient Pharaohs,
as our number eleven pick illustrates…
He Married His Sister Number Eleven: He Married His Sister.
According to the old Pharaohs, incest was the best, and they enthusiastically practised
getting it on with tons of different family members.
The youthful King Tut was no exception- and he shared his royal nuptials with Princess
Ankhesenamon, his sister when he was roughly nine or ten.
As unsettling as it seems- both for his age, and the sheer fact that it’s pretty nasty
to marry your own sister- sibling love was par for the course in the early Egyptian empire.
King Tut’s parents: Akhenaten and Nefertiti, were siblings.
The child king and his equally childish bride lived in ancient Memphis and actually conceived
two children of their own!
The fate of their daughters and King Tut’s blushing baby bride are not known.
Once the king died, their legacies were lost to time.
His Organs Were Put In Jars Number Ten: His Organs Were Put In Jars.
King Tut’s lungs, intestines and stomach were all extracted from his lifeless body
and laid to rest in urns of their own, called canopic jars.
Although this was common practice in ancient Egypt, King Tut’s special jars were as unique
as the boy king himself.
Instead of being carved with images of the gods, they depicted Tut’s face.
Was this so that King Tut could recognize his precious organs and reassemble himself
in the afterlife?
Nobody can say for sure, although we do know that Egyptians prized their delicate organs
beyond almost everything else, and thought that their pickled preservation was vital
to thriving in the afterlife.
Unfortunately, one of the boy king’s organs was overlooked by the meticulous embalmers,
lending another air of mystery to the story that surrounds King Tut.
His Heart Went Missing Number Nine: His Heart Went Missing.
While King Tut’s internal organs made it through the centuries unscathed, there was
one critical element that was absent, and nobody fully understands why.
The boy king was buried without a heart, and none of the canopic jars contained the precious
piece.
There are several theories as to what happened to Tut’s ticker, with some saying that he
died too far away from Cairo to preserve it in time.
Another sinister clue is what King Tut was given in place of a heart: a scarab amulet
blessed with a funeral spell.
While the venerable scarab was known for providing protection and helping the deceased find their
rightful place in the immortal world, it’s still ominous that Tut’s dearest organ went
the way of the dodo when he perished.
Strangely, that’s not the only bizarre part of King Tut’s burial...
He Was Buried With An Unusual Treasure Number Eight: He Was Buried With An Unusual
Treasure.
All Pharaohs were buried with finery: lots of loot to shepherd them safely into the world
beyond, but King Tut’s funeral furniture was in a class of its own.
There were tons of miniature coffins littering the tomb and plenty of borrowed objects that
seemed to belong to other Pharaohs or members of the Egyptian ruling class.
Archaeologists suspect that King Tut’s burial chamber was actually a hodgepodge of ancient
Egyptian relics, many of which had no connection to the king himself.
There are several theories as to why this is, but one of the most popular ones is that
nobody expected the king to die, and they just had to make do with what they had.
He Defied His Father’s Religion Number Seven: He Defied His Father’s Religion.
King Tut was the ultimate rebel, defying his father’s religion and even changing his
name to seal the deal.
Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Tut’s parents, radically changed the Egyptian religious landscape
by scrapping the old gods in favour of Aten.
This relatively new sun god was not popular with the lay-people of Egypt.
In a savvy political move well beyond his years, King Tut pulled a quick switch and
changed his allegiance back to Amun, an Egyptian god of old who was beloved by his loyal servants.
This won him tons of popularity and established him as a powerful ruler, even at the tender
age of ten.
Whether King Tut made this move of his own volition, or his viziers suggested it, we
will never know.
His Death Is A Mystery Number Six: His Death Is A Mystery.
The boy king wasn’t long for this earth, and his death remains one of the greatest
mysteries of the ancient world.
Nobody knows what finally spelt the end for King Tut, but we do know that he perished
right around his nineteenth birthday.
Unlike other Pharaohs who met their bloody demise at the business end of the executioner’s
sword or stick, King Tut does not have any telltale marks that indicate he was assassinated.
We know that the boy king was very frail, suffering bouts of anaemia throughout his
life, and his over-exerted cells might have collapsed under the strain of stress and illness.
Malaria might have dealt the final blow to the feeble Pharoah, taxing his already compromised
immune system with a big dose of tropical disease.
Whatever the culprit, King Tut is destined to live on in pop culture forever, as our
number five pick illustrates.
He’s The Coolest Pharoah Number Five: He’s The Coolest Pharoah.
King Tut might have been an anaemic mess in life, but he is one cool cat in death.
The most unlikely pop icon, King Tut, was singularly responsible for Tut-mania, a dizzying
worship of old Egyptian Pharaohs that kicked off right when his tomb was unearthed in 1914.
Suddenly the boy king was influencing culture, architecture, fashion and literature on a
scale that he could never have imagined in real life.
The Egyptian empire was in full renaissance during the Roaring Twenties when Tut’s likeness
was used to sell everything from soap to candy.
In modern times, Tut was resurrected again by Steve Martin on Saturday Night Life, where
he had his own cult hit, and in 1982 he became a video game star when Konami rolled out their
very own tribute to the youthful Pharoah, known as “Tutankham”.
His Tomb Was Copied Number Four: His Tomb Was Copied.
King Tut’s tomb is such an iconic and popular tourist destination that it was in danger
of being whittled away by the hordes of gawkers who came to pay their respects to the boy
king.
Tourist mania stirred up such a flurry that conservationists actually recreated the tomb
itself in perfect detail so that onlookers could get the full Tut experience without
trampling the delicate burial chamber to tiny bits.
The copy is as comprehensive as it gets, with even the sand being replicated in minute and
perfect form, but many people are sceptical and downright horrified by this new tomb.
They think it lacks the original flair and excitement of King Tut’s original burial
grounds, and while they might be right, Tut-mania doesn’t bode well for preserving the real
deal.
Who knows?
Future visitors might have to make do with the new experience, as Egypt tightens up their
laws and starts restricting visitors to the perennially popular King Tut tomb.
His Death Mask Is A Famous Relic Number Three: His Death Mask Is A Famous Relic.
When you picture the relics of ancient Egypt, there’s a good chance that you’re envisioning
the death mask of the boy King Tut.
His intricate and well-preserved death mask is one of the most influential and impressive
finds ever to be plucked out of the pyramids, and its image is famous all around the world.
Designed to depict the visage of the boy king himself, the death mask was forged of pure
gold and weighed nearly twenty pounds.
The sheer splendour of the raw materials means that the mask would be worth close to $350,000
today, and that’s not counting the historical value!
Death masks were standard calling cards in the ancient empire and another link between
the earthly world and the spirit world beyond.
He Is Connected To A Curse Number Two: He Is Connected To A Curse.
King Tut’s curse is one of the most famous in all of Egypt, spawning dozens of legends
and pop culture references.
When you think of vengeful mummies or mountains of vicious scarabs, you’re thinking of the
terror that surrounds King Tut, and the hefty price that many people had to pay courtesy
of the boy king.
Dozens of people connected to the King Tut burial site have died in mysterious and horrific
ways.
Those who didn’t die were struck with strange illnesses and even went blind as a result
of their chance encounter with the Pharaoh.
One unfortunate soul even took his own life, leaving behind the cryptic message “I have
succumbed to a curse which forces me to disappear”.
It’s hard to see the host of deaths as anything but eerie, and it makes us second guess venturing
too far into the mystery that surrounds King Tut.
His Tomb Might Conceal A Missing Queen Number One: His Tomb Might Conceal A Missing
Queen.
Queen Nefertiti, King Tut’s mother, is one of the most famous figures from ancient Egypt,
and nobody has any idea where her final resting place is.
Known for being a renowned beauty and ferocious Pharoah in her own right, Nefertiti is an
enigmatic and enchanting figure of olden times; a queen who should have had her rightful place
in the Valley of the Kings, but instead was lost to the whims of time.
Is it possible that King Tut’s tomb might contain another chamber where Nefertiti is
buried?
There are other bodies in King Tut’s tomb, but none of them have ever been identified
as the queen herself, although speculations abound.
One of the most telltale clues that Nefertiti is lurking somewhere near her son is the sheer
amount of treasure found in King Tut’s tomb.
It’s unlikely that the short-lived boy king could have amassed all that loot… but we
can never know…
Which of these did you find most shocking?
Let us know in the comments below.
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