The Rough Guide To Tutankhamun And The Golden Age Of Pharaohs

The Rough Guide to Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs

The Rough Guide to Tutankhamun

The new exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs offers a unique insight into the art, wealth and powerof Egypt's New Kingdom. This Rough Guide provides all the background, with compelling details on the treasures and their discovery. Who was Tutankhamun? From the opulence and riches of the royal court at Thebes, to the cult of the god Amun and the great heresy of Akhenaten, the extraordinary era of Tutankhamun's Egypt is explained. The full story of the Valley of the Kings is told, shedding light on why the royal tombs were built, who built them, and how they were decorated, together with the significance of the treasures and the practice and processes of mummification. Fascinating background on Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, the discoverers of Tutankhamun's tomb, and on the fabled curse and its supposed victims. And a report on the CT scan of Tutankhamun's mummy, done in 2005 to reveal the pharaoh's true cause of death.

Tutankhamun

In 1922 Howard Carter uncovered what is still regarded as the most spectacular archaeological discovery ever made. Tutankhamun's tomb had remained hidden in the Valley of the Kings for more than 3000 years and its discovery caused a media sensation, elevating the previously little-known Egyptian Pharaoh into the position of an international celebrity. The contents of the tomb were found almost entirely intact, including the Pharaoh's mummified body, still wearing its solid gold funeral mask. Tutankhamun lived in an era when the Egyptian Empire, centred on the royal city of Thebes, was at its pinnacle and when the wealth and power of its Pharaoh was at its greatest. This was also a period of enormous religious upheaval. Akenaten, the heretical Pharaoh and, more than likely, Tutanhkamun's father, had introduced a new religion, exclusively worshipping the sun god Aten. Under Tutanhkamun, the old religion, with its many gods and goddesses, was restored, putting an end to the heresy. In recent years research has shed new light on Tutankhamun's life and, in particular, on his death. Public interest in the boy king is as strong as ever and our knowledge of the sophisticated and complex society over which he reigned continues to grow.