This September, an eight-month restoration process has begun on the outer coffin of King Tutankhamun. For the first time in 97 years, the entirety of his coffin has been removed from its original resting place. In hopes of displaying the coffin in the Grand Egyptian Museum. This museum of ancient Egyptian artifacts resides near Giza, just outside of Cairo, Egypt. The original coffin had three layers. The original two were removed from the tomb long ago, and now they hope to finish restoring the final layer.
The Valley of the Kings
Within the Valley of the Kings lay the kings, queens and nobles of ancient Egypt. Or at least that’s where they used to reside. Archaeologists have discovered many different tombs and the bodies have been moved to make sure grave robbers would not disturb them. King Tutankhamun is no different from these. In 1922, Howard Carter was credited with the discovery of the tomb. To his surprise, the tomb seemed almost untouched by any vandals or thieves.
King Tutankhamun’s Coffin
The “Golden King” was placed in a three-part coffin upon his death at around the age 18. Each coffin was constructed differently. The inner coffin was made of solid gold encasing the actual body of King Tutankhamun. Secondly, this coffin was placed into the next layer which was made with gilded wood and then finished with multi colored glass. The outer-most coffin, the one which was most recently removed, is a wooden coffin covered in gold. Each coffin displays wondrous craftsmanship and truly allows you to embrace the idea of the “Golden King.”
Restoration is going to take up to 8 months and will hopefully be as intricate and beautiful as the original made back around 1300 BC. If you’re superstitious, then I’d stay away from this because many people in Egypt fear the “Curse of the Pharaoh’s.” Some say it was a story to scare any robbers and vandals from entering the tombs and stealing. While others think it to be true, and the doom of anyone to disturb the resting place of the fallen kings.
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