People are always amazed to see King Tut, the remains of his mummy from the XVIII dynasty that is. There is always a fascination about seeing preserved dead bodies especially those associated with ancient civilizations which might shed light on how people lived then.
Tut may have been the brother or cousin of Akhenaton who was responsible for the modernization of ancient religious practices as it were by introducing monotheism. His sister-in-law would have been the famed queen Nefertiti whose beautiful bust is world famous.
The story of this young King, who today was found to have probably died from an injury to his thigh, came to light some 85 years ago. One wonders how long the boy king will remain an active magnet for the tourist trade, drawing millions of visitors annually his tomb to see him concealed behind his golden mask. Perhaps we drawn to visit to see the semblance of a human so well preserved behind the mask.
His mask, sarcophagus and funerary furniture have been a main theme behind articles that appeared in the National Geographic and other historical journals. How often can we witness the remains of a human that has been preserved so well for thousands of years? I cannot think of others that are of ancient historical significance.
We have been able to observe a few like the one that was unearthed from Danish bog years ago, called the bog man or the prehistoric ice man that was supposedly killed by an attacker and was preserved naturally in the glacier ice of the Alps. Whether the preservation be natural or artificially induced as in the case of King Tut, humans are still curious about how we looked, what we ate and how we lived and died.
For the first time since his discovery the museum which hosts the sarcophagus of the late king is being revealed to see but it is a vain attempt to keep the body preserved permanently. There are already signs that the heat and carbon dioxide exhaled from curious onlookers has contributed to the disintegration of the mummy. The curator at Luxor wants us to preserve the face of the King at least that was hidden behind the mask for thousands of years.
If some contemporary Indiana Jones wants to visit the famed Valley of the Kings and see the remains of the young royal, you may not have many years left because of its progressively deteriorating state. The mask has been removed to reveal the Pharaoh's smile complete with buckteeth. Some are debating whether the body should be exhibited outside of its sarcophagus in a climate controlled case or be kept in the place it was found.
