21 Facts About King Tut That Are Absolutely Astounding

This article will introduce you to a very famous ancient Egyptian pharaoh named Tutankhamun.

Tutankhamun was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, or a king, whose name is also spelled as Tutankhamen or Tutankhamon, but his original name was Tutankhaten, who is nicknamed today as King Tut. He is regarded as one of the most well-known rulers from ancient Egypt.

King Tut reigned in ancient Egypt between 1333-1323 BCE. He was the last of the royal family in Egypt which ruled during the 18th century.

King Tut is famous in history for being a king who restored the ancient Egyptian religion after his father, Akhenaten had resolved to destroy it in order to introduce monotheism in his reign.

Tutankhamun, with the help of his advisers, brought back ancient Egypt’s culture, art, and religion. Tutankhamun also started to bring back the shrines, monuments, and temples of god Amun, which his father had destroyed during the ‘Amarna revolution’ led by him to destroy all the temples, personnel, and privileges of old gods.

King Tut also gave priestly orders for two cults.

During his father's reign, the Sun God Aten gained more importance but after coming to power, King Tut reverted to praying the deity Amun.

But his reign did not last long, as King Tut died unexpectedly when he was only 19 years old. Recent studies conducted on the skeletal remains of Tutankhamun reveal a presence of certain malaria parasites along with bone diseases, which may have been the cause of the early death of the famous Pharaoh.

Did you know that King Tut's tomb has been located in the Valley of the Kings located in ancient Thebes in Egypt?

Read on to know more about the boy king who married his half-sister, daughter of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti! After you have read about the usage of golden coffins in ancient Egypt, also check facts about Egypt and facts about King Nebuchadnezzar. 

King Tut's Parents

Originally, the parentage of Tutankhamun was unknown but recently, DNA research was conducted on the remains found in not just Tutankhamun’s tomb, but several other tombs. These tombs were given specific code numbers in order to identify them. Tutankhamun’s tomb number is KV62.

His father is believed to be Akhenaten, who was his predecessor on the throne. Akhenaten’s tomb is numbered KV55, which genetic study reveals that it resembles closely to the remains of King Tut.

It is believed that his mother was his father’s own sister, who is referred to as ‘the younger lady’. The DNA of this younger lady from tomb KV35 resembles that of Tutankhamun.

Scientists have also raised some doubts about the presence of the remains in tomb KV55. Several researchers claim that they are actually the remains of Smenkhkare who was a co-regent with Akhenaten in his final years.

If that was the case, then Smenkhkare would be the father of Tutankhamun.

Many scientists have questioned the reliability of the medical analysis of these tombs, because the remains date back so long ago, more than 3000 years. This gives rise to possible decaying and degradation of any DNA samples, hence it is difficult to determine these things with a 100 % guarantee.

King Tut's Wife

Young Tutankhamun became a king at the age of only eight or nine years after the death of the king’s co-regent, Smekhkare. As it is apparent from the above example of parentage, inter-family marriages were quite common between ancient Egyptians, especially the royals.

It was considered necessary by the royals so as to keep the bloodline pure, as they were considered sacred beings at the time. This also gave them strategic leverage against anyone looking to usurp their power.

After becoming a king, Tutankhamun married Ankhesenpaaton, who changed her name to Ankhesenamun later. She was the daughter of Akhenaten, who was also the father of Tutankhamun.

Hence she was a half-sister or step-sister of Tutankhamun.

Subsequently, they had to suffer because of inbreeding, as even though they had two daughters together, none of them could survive infancy. It is also said that the reason for the sudden death of King Tut was a result of generations of inter-family breeding, which led to several congenital health issues which have been detected from his remains.

King Tut's Tomb

It is believed that Tutankhamun’s death might have been an unexpected event, as his tomb seems to have been made hastily and is smaller as well, compared to the tombs of other pharaohs.

King Tut's tomb was found in the Valley of the Kings, which is an area in Egypt where several tombs have been discovered dating back to as far as 1300 BCE.

It is believed that the later kings tried to erase Tutankhamun’s name from the list of kings of Egypt, as the location where King Tut's tomb was buried was later occupied by workers who were building the tomb of Ramses VI.

Thus, he had been buried hastily in a small tomb.

After the entrance of the tomb was discovered, systematic research began around 1915.

The actual intact tomb was found in 1922 by a British archeologist named Howard Carter. The tomb was completely intact at the time when Howard Carter found it, after which the research began.

Howard Carter cataloged more than 5,000 items that were present inside the tomb, which includes a pure gold coffin and the famous gold mask, several weapons like bows, knives, and other things like food, wine, furniture, trumpets, linen clothes, etc, some of which are belied to have the power to summon war.

There were signs of the tomb being entered and plundered long back, but most of it was intact when found. It is known that Howard Carter took 10 years to categorize and catalog all the items found inside Tutankhamun’s tomb.

King Tut Exhibit

After the remains of Tutankhamun's tomb were collected and studied by the researchers, they were made available for public viewing during the 1960s and 1970s. This exhibition was named ‘Treasures of Tutankhamun’, where initially, the treasures were kept for display at an Egyptian museum situated in Cairo in 1962. Later the exhibitions started worldwide starting in 1972-1979.

These exhibits were kept for public display in several world-famous museums in countries like the USA, Japan, France, the Soviet Union, Canada, and Germany.

Even the excavations of 1922 by Howard Carter which were funded by Lord Carnarvon gained worldwide coverage.

Because of this appeal surrounding King Tut, he is better known worldwide and his golden mask also represents the country of Egypt for many people. The exhibit which happened in France attracted more than 1.2 million visitors, while the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art gained 1.75 million visitors at the time of the Tutankhamun’s exhibit.

More than five million people went to watch the exhibit of the treasures of Tutankhamun held in several cities in the USA.

Another exhibit tour was launched in Los Angeles in 2018, called ‘King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh’, which was later exhibited in Paris.

This is said to be the largest of all the previous exhibits, as it consists of more than a hundred gold coins, jewelry, various sculptures, and carvings along with the world-famous gold mask of King Tutankhamun.

But due to the pandemic, the exhibition had to be canceled after its London stop and all the treasures were taken back to Cairo.

It has been announced that all these treasures will be exhibited permanently in the Grand Egyptian Museum located in Cairo from now on.

King Tut's Mummy And Mask

When Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered, his mummy was laid inside three coffins, the innermost of which is made of pure gold. The outer two coffins are made from wood, which had gold hammered over its plates.

The mummy dates back to almost 3,300 years which was covered in stripes of loincloth, anointed with oils to preserve the body. When these layers were removed by the researchers, they found many objects like finery, weapons, and jewelry situated between these layers on Tutankhamun’s body.

From his mummy, researchers have concluded that Tutankhamun was approximately five ft six in (168 cm) in height, had a slight build and a curved spine. The excavators also found a magnificent gold mask on the mummy’s head inside the tomb, along with various precious jewels placed on the body of the mummy.

This burial mask is considered as one of the finest examples of Egyptian art and culture which also represents the time of ancient Egyptian civilization.

The mask has a weight of about 22 pounds or 10 kilograms of pure, solid gold, and is about 1.8 ft (0.54 m) in height. This golden burial mask of Tutankhamun is one of the most famous Egyptian treasures which attracts millions of visitors to take a look at the fine craftsmanship of ancient Egyptians.

Tutankhamun's First Tour And Its Influence On Popular Culture

Tutankhamun's tomb is considered one of the most amazing and important discoveries of the 20th century, which almost made an entire generation crazy for its culture.

This archaeological discovery inspired many as it had a huge impact on clothing, jewelry, fabrics, hairstyles, furniture, and architecture in the second half of the 20th century, around the time of the worldwide exhibit of Treasures of Tutankhamun.

Due to his increasing popularity in modern American culture, he was given the name ‘King Tut’, which is still used to this day.

US President Herbert Hoover had affectionately named his dog after the loved King Tut.

Songwriter Harry Von Tilzer penned down a song about King Tut, which went like, 'They opened up his tomb the other day and jumped with glee; They learned a lot about ancient history; His tomb instead of tears; was full of souvenirs'. The discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb created a huge Egyptian cultural wave worldwide that lasted for decades.

It is believed that more than eight million people have laid their eyes on the mask of King Tut, which is more than the people on which the king reigned during his brief lifetime.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for facts about King Tut then why not take a look at the Great Sphinx of Giza, or Cleopatra children.