The Egyptian Museum- King Tut Collection

A Brief history of the King Tutankhamun Collection

King Tut Rooms ,one of the most exciting collection in the Egyptian museum (Museum of Cairo) and one that will certainly capture your heart, is the funerary assemblage of the Golden boy, king Tut became king in the late 18 Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. following the death of king Smenkhkare, a vague character that we know little about, King Tut was married to queen Ankhesenpaten, daughter of king Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, he was raised in the palaces of Amarna during the religious revolution, but after the capital moved back to Thebes (Luxor), he changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun. After his death, Ay who was a noble of great importance, became king.

An English Archeologist and Egyptologist, Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s tomb inside Valley of the Kings,Luxor, virtually intact on November 4th 1922. he then spent the next 10 years of his life carefully emptying it, and researching the objects with in. altogether he found 5398 objects.

Carter came to Egypt to work as a draftsman, but later on became inspector of antiquities in Upper Egypt and work in the Valley of Kings during the time he spent five seasons searching for the tombs of King Tut, supported by Lord Carnarvon. He lived in a rest-house at the Valley of the Kings. His has now been converted into a museum celebrating the history of the discovery of the tomb and life of Howard Carter.

On the morning of Nov 1922, a young boy of 14 was bring water to the workmen at the Valley of the Kings, when placing his large water Vessal on the ground, he tried to make a space for it by digging with his hands to remove the sand, he could not know that he was about to enter the history, while digging he found a step, straight away, he ran to carter’s tent and took him by hand to bring him to see his discovery.

Carter then began to excavate with his work men until they found the entrance to the tomb, he was so happy that his dream had come true that he immediately sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon saying that a great discovery had been made in the Valley of the Kings, a completely sealed tomb, and that he would wait for his arrival. Lord Carnarvon came with his daughter, Lady Evelyn, on November 23rd

On November 24th Carter took Lord Carnarvon to the home’s entrance to show him the intact seals of the cemetery. Then, as they opened the tomb, Lord Carnarvon asked carter what he could see inside, and Carter replied the famous words that are still known by everyone today .“Wonderful things”

The Funerary Mask of King Tutankhamun inside the Egyptian Museum

King Tut funerary mask is perhaps the most impressive piece in the collection. The mask is about 25 pounds of solid gold, inlaid lapis lazuli, carnelian, obsidian, and colored glass, quartz and turquoise.

The beautiful mask is extremely life like and attracts the most tourists of any other object on the upper level of the museum. the back of the mask is engraved with a magic formula for added protection of the body.

His body was encased in a series of threecoffins. Two are on display at the Cairo Museum, the outermost coffin still cover the body of the Young Pharaoh in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. One of the coffins was almost 300 pounds of solid gold, the other was wood, layered with gold and both were encrusted with precious and semi-precious gemstones and engraved with protection spells. During the process of mummification, his internal organs were removed from his body and placed into these protective jars, the jars were housed in a chest and the chest was placed inside a large gilded wooden shrine. The jars and the chest were carved from white alabaster, quarried from Hatnuband then carved and painted with hieroglyphic spells .the shrine along with many other priceless artifacts, was crammed in the small “Treasury of the tomb” .

King Tut collection display at Cairo Museum

– The shrine that stored king Tut’sCanopic jars.

– Cabinet that stored king a golden statue.

– A wooden statue of Anubis, the guide of the dead sits upon a great chest.

– Both the chest and the shrine are covered in sheet of gold and covered with hieroglyphic.