Tutankhamun's mummy to go on display in the Valley of the Kings

news.com.au

EGYPT will put the mummy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun on display next month inside his tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings, allowing visitors to see his face for the first time, Egypt's chief archaeologist said overnight.

Zahi Hawass, head of the High Council for Antiquities, said he would place the mummy in a climate-controlled glass showcase in the tomb and cover the body with linen. Tutankhamun's bare face would be visible.

"You will enter the tomb and see for the first time the face of Tutankhamun ... This is the first time in history that anyone will see the mummy (in public). This will continue the magic of Tutankhamun," Mr Hawass said. . . .

Although the artefacts from Tutankhamun's burial tomb have toured the world, the mummified body of the king has been examined only a handful of times in detail since the tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter.

See the above for the full story, which is accompanied by a photograph of giant-sized Anubis floating up the Nile in front of Tower Bridge in London (U.K.).

Also on Reuters:

Hawass had not yet set a date to display the mummy, but said he expected it to be shortly before a mid-November exhibit on Tutankhamun in London that is to include the pharaoh's royal crown but not the gold mask, which is too delicate to travel.

Hawass described Tutankhamun as having "buck teeth", and pictures of the mummy show a face with high cheekbones and blackened, cracked skin and an intact nose.

For those who are curious about the mummy, there are photographs of the mummy, together with a portrait sculpture and three computer reconstructions of the head on the Tutankhamun mummy page of Jacques Kinnaer's Ancient Egypt Site.