From golden sarcophagus to plexi-glass case

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

The last tourists may have been leaving the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank in Luxor but the area in front of the tomb of Tutankhamun remained far from deserted. Instead of the tranquillity that usually descends on the area in the evening it was a hive of activity. TV crews trailed masses of equipment, journalists milled and photographers held their cameras at the ready. The reason? For the first time since Howard Carter discovered the tomb in 1922 the mummy of Tutankhamun was being prepared for public display.

Inside the subterranean burial chamber Egypt's archaeology supremo Zahi Hawass, accompanied by four Egyptologists, two restorers and three workmen, were slowly lifting the mummy from the golden sarcophagus where it has been rested -- mostly undisturbed -- for more than 3,000 years. The body was then placed on a wooden stretcher and transported to its new home, a high- tech, climate-controlled plexi-glass showcase located in the outer chamber of the tomb where, covered in linen, with only the face and feet exposed, it now greets visitors.