King Tut’s mummy on public display for the first time With a heave, six men lifted the mummy of King Tutankhamun out of the coffin in which he had lain for more than 3,000 years. They carried him past TV cameras to the other side of his cramped tomb, where a specially designed climate-controlled display case waited to become the boy king’s new home. King Tut’s well-preserved face looks like dark leather, and he has a hint of a smile. King Tut has what Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass calls beautiful buck teeth. “The face of the golden boy is amazing. It has magic and it has mystery. If you look at his face, you can feel the face of the golden king,” he said. Tutankhamun, popularly called King Tut, was just 19 when he died more than 3,200 years ago. The host of gold and treasure found when his tomb was opened in 1922 has made him one of the most famous of ancient Egypt’s rulers. His golden death mask has become an iconic image. Moving the boy king’s mummy is not just about putting his body on show. It is also designed to protect his remains from the heat and humidity, which can reach sweltering levels as hundreds of visitors file through the tomb every day. “Tutankhamun would be happy because we are preserving the mummy. Because humidity and heat can change this mummy to a powder,” added Hawass. King Tut’s mummy went on public display for the first time 85 years to the day after his tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter. It took five years for Carter to remove and catalogue the contents of the tomb. In order to remove the king’s gold and jewel-encrusted amulets and his famed golden death mask, Carter cut the mummy into 18 pieces...
