Let the sleeping pharaoh be
Posted: Monday, November 05, 2007 12:30 PM
Filed Under:
Cairo, Egypt
By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Tel Aviv Bureau Chief
LUXOR, Egypt – An irreverent and entirely inappropriate thought kept imposing itself as I waited to report live on MSNBC about the first-ever public viewing of the face of King Tutankhamen from his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt.
There he lay in front of me, his blackened face and empty eye sockets staring upwards, with taut cheeks stretched over small bones, lips pulled back in a sneer and deep wrinkles forming jagged scars in his face.
And all I kept thinking as I waited for the anchor to ask her first question: Do not kiss the Sleeping Beauty who died more than 3,000 years ago. I imagined that if I did, maybe he would come back to life. And if he did, what would I say?
But all went well. King Tut didn't interrupt the live broadcast, and when the lights went out, I was left contemplating these mortal remains of the famous boy-king.
Fate of the famous boy-king
Tutankhamen was about 8 years old when he became the leader of mighty Egypt, and he is believed to have been 19 when he died. It isn't clear who his father was, what King Tut did as pharaoh or how he died. But he has become the most famous pharaoh, and along with the pyramids and the sphinx, an icon of Egyptian antiquity.
And all because robbers missed his grave. For about 400 years, Egypt buried its kings in the Valley of the Kings, a practice that stopped roughly 3,000 years ago. But within a century or two, the graves had been picked clean, gold statues had been melted down for their ore and carvings of inestimable value had been scattered to the wind.
So when the fabulous treasure of gold and inlaid stones that was buried with Tutankhamen to smooth his transition to the afterlife (pharaohs believed in taking it with them) was first discovered 85 years ago – on Nov. 4, 1922, King Tut was guaranteed his place in history and has fascinated ancient Egypt fans ever since.
Not so pretty 3,000 years later
But back to his face. Ugly doesn't begin to describe it. After all, what would any of us look like more than 3,000 years after dying? But whether it was the imposing surroundings in the ancient tomb, the tension of the moment (he could have fallen apart while being moved), or my own response to the face of the pharaoh, I was moved, and left wondering what message he brought from antiquity.
Tutankhamen is on view in a climate-controlled glass case in the tomb, a modern sarcophagus, his burial place in the Valley of the Kings. Only his small black face and his little black feet can be seen. The rest of his body is covered by a linen cloth – much of his body is broken into 18 pieces. The damage was sustained when the British archaeologist Howard Carter first discovered the mummy in 1922.
Taking in the scene, all I could think of was how weird it all seemed.
The King Tut exhibit will travel to the U.S. in the fall of 2008. But the exhibit will be minus the mummy, as the organizers don't want to disturb him anymore.
