Back to: CBSE Class 11th English Summary
King Tut, the last heir of a powerful family of Egypt, was probably murdered. He was laid to rest and forgotten. The modern world started to speculate about him after the discovery of his tomb.
Table of Contents
Mysterious Murder!
Archeologists discovered King Tut’s resting place, and while they took him from the Valley of the Kings, angry winds blew up the dust that had settled there for ages. On the 6th of January, 2005, the young ruler (who had died almost 3300 years ago) was bought under a CT scanner to unravel the mysteries of his death.
Many tourists from worldwide gathered and whispered while some stood silent and probably thought about his untimely death. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, had said that the mummy was in a terrible condition due to Howard Carter (an archeologist who had discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922). It was one of the most prized possession of the modern world and added to pharaoh’s legends.
Missing Bones
When Carter examined the mummy, he found some interesting things. After he had opened the first coffin (there were three in total), he found a shroud adorned with willow and olive leaves, wild celery, lotus petals, and cornflowers which indicated that he was buried in March or April.
The resin on the main coffin had hardened, and Tut’s corpse stuck to the bottom of the casket. Carter placed the mummy in the sun so that the sun’s heat would loosen the resin but all in vain.
Carter had no choice but to chisel the body from the coffin, or else thieves would snatch away the gold and destroy the mummy. Carter’s team separated every major joint and re-joined them.
Since Archaeology had changed a lot in the modern world, in 1968, an anatomy professor X-rayed the mummy and found out that breast bone and front ribs are missing. King tut was the last heir of his family, and his death was the death of a dynasty.
Orion, the Guard!
Amenhotep III, Tut’s grandfather or father, was a powerful king who Amenhotep IV succeeded. This new king promoted the worship of Aten and destroyed Amun, a major god.
He changed his name to Akhenaten and changed the religious capital to the new city of Akhetaten, now known as Amarna. After King Tut took the throne, he changed his name from ‘Tutankhaten’ to ‘Tutankhamun.’ He reigned for eight years and died.
He was one of the first mummies that the authorities scanned from head to toe. At the same time, they carried the mummy into the trailer. Two men rushed to the office nearby and took two plastic fans inside the trailer since the CT scanner’s fans had malfunctioned.
A guard joked that it was the curse of the pharaoh. The substitute fans worked well, and no data was lost during the scan. Zahi Hawass smiled and said he was perturbed, but now he would sleep.
After the scan, the narrator left the trailer. Above the entrance to Tut’s tomb stood Orion (a constellation known as the soul of Osiris: the god of the afterlife). According to the narrator, it probably looked after the boy king.
