King Tut: A Insight into His Reign and Legacy

King Tut is one of the most famous Pharaohs in all of history. Although he is very famous enough, how much do you really know about King Tut’s past, present, and future. He was phenomenal, disabled, playful, and had an unexpected death.

The dynasty began with the rulers from the north of Egypt by kingahymose 1- an event that may have lead to the Biblical story of the Exodus. The height of Egyptian power and wealth, perhaps came between 1550 and 1290 B.C. Egypt was a major world player because of its war booty and lively trade. The empire of Egypt faced the Mediterranean sea and laid on the coast of northern Africa. The Nile River, which runs north and south, split the country in two. The Nile River, which is more than four thousand miles long, is the world's longest river. (Ashik)

Thutmose 111 established an empire and domains stretching towards the heart of Africa.

Amenhotep wanted paintings of people to look more natural than formal. One painting has Amenhotep and his wife playing with just three of their six little daughters. (Edwards 22) Amenhotep married a very beautiful queen named Nefertiti, despite of his looks. Nefertiti was an adviser to Amenhotep and was a powerful woman. (Edwards 10-11,11) The son of the powerful Akhenaten was a boy king of the 18th Egyptian dynasty. (Networks) The people of Egypt practiced “a polytheistic religion” for a long time. (rodgers 13) around 1350 B.C King Akhenaten abolished all the nation’s gods and replaced them with one god. The Aten.

(Ashik)
The Pharaoh believed he was Aten-Ra’s messenger on earth and Aten Ra was going to be the only god. Aten barely survived the death of its parton. Within a few short years, Akhenaten's dynasty died out. Ramesses the first started the 19th dynasty. King Tutankhamen’s birth name was Tutankhamen, which meant “the living image of Aten”. He was born in 1341 B.C. (Networks 3) It was probably clear that the young boy was going to be a sick child from the time he was born. His left foot was strangely twisted, his head sloped backwards into a cone, and his spine was curved slightly. From the young age, Tut already needed a cane to walk. He kept aware that he was different. (Rogers 17) His servants would be at his every need. Every day they brought meat and vegetables. These foods were fit for a prince. His servants dressed and bathed him too. They would shave his head, but only leave a single braid. (Edwards 26) He wore heavy gold rings and bracelets. ( Edwards 29) King Tut also wore the tall crowns of the Pharaoh.(Edwards 9)
King Tutankhamen was a young boy King starting at the age of nine. He was King for about ten years. (Ashik) King Tut married Ankhesenamun, his half-sister, the same year he became King. (Networks 5) King Tutankhamun's wife wore many beautiful and heavy jewelry.(Edwards 29-30) King Tut somehow felt responsible for carrying his family's reputation to stay in power and strong, although he may not have wanted to marry his half-sister. As soon as Tut and his wife were old enough, they would soon start their own family. (Rogers 21,23)
The pyramid shape was very important because the pyramid was a symbol of the Sun’s rays, which the Pharaoh would use to climb to the afterlife. The first pyramid was built in 2611 B.C. for a Pharaoh called DJoser. It had six levels that rose up like steps. (Edwards 54) The second pyramid, called the “Bont Pyramid”, didn't have any steps and was built thirty years later by another Pharaoh. The sphinx is watching over the three largest pyramids at Giza. (Edwards 48, 50) French soldiers found a large piece of black stone that had carvings in three different scripts: “Demotic”, Greek, and hieroglyphs in 1799. This stone was named the Rosetta Stone after the town where it was found. (Edwards 36) Egyptians made a kind of heavy paper from papyrus plants which grew along the banks of the Nile River. Our English word paper, comes from the Egyptian word papyrus. The sheets were rolled up into scrolls instead of binding sheets of paper into books. Just a dab of water was all it took to erase a mistake. (Edwards 32,33)
When Tut was older, he rode his own chariot drawn by two fit horses with plumed headdress. King Tut would take his bow and arrow and go hunting with his hounds. King Tut enjoyed playing a famous board game named Senet. Of the King didn't want to play music himself, his servants would play the lute, pipe, and harp for him. (Edwards 27,28) The boys in ancient Egypt learned to read and write at the age of four. (Edwards 30) The young king probably made a lot of mistakes learning the alphabet because his alphabet had about one thousand different symbols known Hieroglyphs. (Edwards 33-34) King Tut would have a scribe write for him if he didn't want to do it. (Edwards 30)
After the death of Tut’s father Smenkhkare took over the throne for a short period. Then Tutankhamen continued his family's reign. (Ashik) A grand vizier named Ay and an army general offered to help Tut reign over Egypt. (Rogers 24) Horemheb and Ay reversed Akhenaten's decree to worship Ate, in please of the traditional polytheistic beliefs. (Networks 5) Tut let his people worship as many gods as they wanted, contrasting from his father Akhenaten, who had tried to make all Egyptians worship one god. Tut decided to change his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamen to show how committed he was to the people's god, Amun. King Tut’s half sister, his wife, changed her name from Ankhesenpaaten to Ankhesenamun. (Rogers 29,30) King Tut ordered the reconstruction of the holy sites and continued construction at the temple of Karnak. (Networks 7) The Egyptians believed in the Divine Rights of Kings. (Ashik) Egyptians also believed in the afterlife, and was always a tradition enacted with deeply religious implications. (Ashik) The afterlife was similar to life on earth, but even better! The Book of the Dead was a book filled with all the magic spells and helped a person reach Land of the Dead. (Edwards 43)
After the King had died, he vanished from history until his tomb was found in 1922. (Networks 1) King Tutankhamen probably died in the fall of 1323 A.D. There were catastrophes in Egypt after the death of the Boy King. There was a letter that was sent to the Hittite King that was probably sent from Ankhesenamun begging the King to send her one of his sons to wed. (Rogers 38-39) Right after he died, they floated his body across the Nile River. Priests were waiting to start the process of mummification. The process of mummification took about seventy days. The pharaoh's body was cut open so the organs could be removed. (Edwards 57,58) his possessions had been gathered for the process of mummification. (Rogers 34)
The priests put good luck charms in between the cloth layers that were part of the wrapping process which took 15 days. (Edwards 60-61) Seventy days after his death, the Boy King was placed into his tomb to rest in peace. (Networks 9)The current theory of the boy king’s death is dying in a chariot accident. This might explain why his heart was not preserved. Some people thought he had blood poisoning which he couldn't handle because of his sick body. Others thought he died from murder because of the hole in the back of Tut’s head. (Rogers 38,37) Howard Carter was a British archeologist who came to Egypt in 1891 and after world war 1 to start looking for King Tut's tomb. (Networks 10) When carter first went to Egypt he was 17 years old. (Edwards 77)
Later, the jars that were filled with the organs were placed in the tomb along with his mummy. (Edwards 59) King Tut was buried on the tomb that was built in the valley of the Kings. (Networks 9) People who studied the body, found proof that the body had been cooked. Researchers assume that the body caught on fire because of the humidity, temperature and oxygen levels were in the right condition for the oils in the linen to smolder. The oils used to preserve the body had been soaked up by the linen bandages that were wrapped around the young King’s body. The tomb and the decorations were probably for someone else, but it was used as the resting place for the King. (Rogers 34,35) Two coffins that contained two baby girls were found placed next to Tut’s coffin. There were three big couches whose sides were covered in the shapes of beasts, two overturned chariots, and a throne found in the tomb. (Edwards 40,90) One of the treasures found in his tomb was his ceremonial chair. (Ashik)The most fascinating treasure was his coffin. There were three; one stacked inside the other, with the last one made of gold. (Networks 11)