Treasures of Tutankhamun

This is famous gold death mask of the boy king Tutankhamun which is in the Cairo Museum. Tutankhamun's mask was made of two layers of beaten gold, inlaid with semi precious stones. The weight of his death mask is about 10kg (22lb).

Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings on the 4th November 1922 and is catalogued as KV62.

You can clearly see from this side view of Tutankhamun's death mask, the vulture and the cobra at the top of his headdress. The vulture represents Nekhbet goddess of upper Egypt and Wadjit cobra goddess of lower Egypt. The ancient Egyptians believed their Gods had beards so the Pharaohs wore false ones, which again can clearly be seen in this side profile.

This is the back of Tutankhamun's beautiful gold mask which has, written in hieroglyphs, a protective spell asking the various gods to protect the young boy king's facial features.

Little is known about this beautiful wooden sculpture of the boy king, Tutankhamun. It was found discarded in the passage by excavators under the rubble. The tomb robbers who only managed to get into the first chamber could obviously see no value in it.

The piece depicts the young king's head emerging out of a lotus flower, representing the birth of the sun- god.

Here you can see Tutankhamun's canopic chest complete with his canopic jars, all made from calcite.

Each of the four jars would have held one of the young kings internal organs, these being the stomach, liver, lungs and intestines.

These are just a few of the collection of walking sticks found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Very little appears to be known about these except that the carvings appear to be enemies and slaves of the pharaoh. The walking stick in the middle shows a Nubian slave.

Here on the left you can see one of the two life size guardian statues that were standing either side of the entrance to the burial chamber. They are made of wood, and although they look the same, they are in fact quite individual. This statue represents the king himself.

The picture on right shows you, in this reproduction in Cairo, how the antechamber of king Tutankhamun's tomb would have looked and you can see where this statue would have been placed. All the articles found in the antechamber were considered to be necessary to equip the young king in the afterlife.

This is the middle of three coffins, made of wood and then covered in sheets of gold. The decoration of the body is carried out in the cloisonné technique. The detail is quite perfect and if you move your curser over the picture on the right, you will be able to see the fine detail for yourself.