The Trent Schools
King Tut

The most famous of all the kings found in the Valley of the Kings was Tutankhamun, also known as KingTut. He died in mid-January, 1343 B.C.

He is so famous because his tomb was in almost perfect condition. His tomb had been robbed once very soon after he was put in, but everything lost was replaced as soon as possible.

The mummy of King Tut was found in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. Lord Carnarvon was a rich man who owned the right to dig in the Valley of the Kings where Tutankhamun was found. Lord Carnarvon was letting Carter dig for a king named Tutankhamun who's name Carter had read on some stone walls. Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon searched for five years for Tutankhamun in the valley of the kings yet they found nothing. Lord Carnarvon was giving up hope after five years, so Carter offered to pay for the workers, and Lord Carnarvon agreed to this. After four days of work under Carter's pay they found the steps leading to the entrance to the tomb. It took Lord Carnarvon two weeks to get from England to the valley of the kings. When Lord Carnarvon got to the scene they began futher excavation.

The first room they came to was a fake and it had a hidden door that led to the main chamber. From the main chamber two rooms split off. There was a storage room and the burial chamber where the mummy was laid. Many people died of the so-called curse on King Tut's tomb but we now know that bacteria sealed in the tomb fed on the food in the tomb and killed the workers when it got in their lungs. Carter said later "As my eyes grew accustomed to the light I was struck dumb with amazement". A winged scarab beetle spells out the hieroglyphs " Neb, Kheperu and Re" which mean Tutankhamun.