Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun began life as Tutankhaten, a name meaning living image of Aten, born around 1343 BC at Amarna during the reign of his father's generation, a period when Egypt's traditional religion had been upended by the pharaoh Akhenaten in favor of worship centered on the sun disk Aten. His exact parentage is not confirmed by any surviving inscription, but genetic testing has identified his father as the mummified man from tomb KV55, generally thought to be Akhenaten, and his mother as an unidentified mummy known as the Younger Lady found in tomb KV35. According to this genetic evidence, his parents were full siblings, both children of Amenhotep III and his chief wife, Tiye.

He became pharaoh at only eight or nine years old, following the brief reigns of Smenkhkare and a female ruler named Neferneferuaten. On taking the throne he adopted the name Nebkheperure and reigned for roughly nine years. As a child he married Ankhesenpaaten, one of Akhenaten's daughters, who later changed her name alongside his to Ankhesenamun. The couple had two daughters, both of whom died at or shortly after birth, one born prematurely and one at full term; both were buried alongside their father in his tomb.

Akhenaten's reign had suppressed the traditional Egyptian pantheon in favor of the Aten and had shifted the capital to the new city of Akhetaten at Amarna. Early in Tutankhamun's reign, evidence suggests his court was already working to reconcile the old religion with the new, and activity at Amarna slowed. By his third year on the throne, the young king had reversed his father's central religious policy, ending the exclusive worship of the Aten and restoring the god Amun to supremacy, along with the privileges of Amun's priesthood. It was at this point that he and his queen dropped the aten suffix from their names, becoming Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun.

These changes were recorded on the Restoration Stela, erected in his fourth regnal year, which described his efforts to repair temples damaged during the Amarna period and to reburial his father's remains in the Valley of the Kings. The royal court abandoned Amarna, and the seat of government moved to Memphis, while Thebes was restored as Egypt's great center of religious life. Tutankhamun sponsored construction projects at Karnak, including a sphinx avenue leading to the temple of Mut using figures originally made for Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and completed decoration work at Luxor temple that had been started under Amenhotep III. Many of these projects were unfinished at his death and were later completed or claimed by his successors, particularly Horemheb.

Egypt's foreign relations had been neglected under Akhenaten, and Tutankhamun's reign saw efforts to restore diplomatic ties, particularly with the kingdom of Mitanni, reflected in gifts from foreign lands found in his tomb. His mortuary temple at Thebes recorded military victories against Nubians and Asiatics, and by the record available his reign was undefeated. His tomb contained an extensive array of weaponry, including hundreds of arrows, dozens of bows, swords, daggers, and shields, much of it inscribed with his name and showing signs of actual use, though how directly he took part in combat himself remains debated among historians.

Unusually for a pharaoh, Tutankhamun was worshipped as a living god during his own lifetime rather than only after death. Temples dedicated to his deified form were built in Nubia, at Kawa and at Faras, associating him directly with the god Amun. At Karnak, the Stela of Huy contains a hymn addressing Tutankhamun's divine aspect in language equating him with Amun himself, and this cult had its own priestly hierarchy modeled on that of Amun's regular clergy, with officials holding titles such as First and Second Prophet of Nebkheperure.

Tutankhamun died at around eighteen years old, and no ancient record explains the circumstances. CT scans conducted in 2005 revealed he had suffered a compound fracture of his left leg shortly before death, with no signs of healing and embalming material inside the wound, indicating the injury occurred very close to the time he died. Genetic testing also detected DNA from the parasite responsible for the most severe form of malaria, showing he had been infected multiple times by different strains. Researchers have concluded that a combination of this leg injury and a severe malarial infection most likely caused his death, possibly worsened by other health issues.

Numerous other medical conditions have been proposed over the years to explain his early death or unusual depictions in art, including various podiatric conditions and inherited disorders, but several of these, such as gynecomastia and certain craniofacial syndromes, have since been ruled out through further genetic analysis. Because his death appears to have come earlier than expected, he was buried not in a grand royal tomb but in a small tomb likely intended for someone else, adapted quickly so that burial could occur within the customary seventy days after death.

Tutankhamun's tomb, designated KV62, was discovered in November 1922 in the Valley of the Kings by excavator Howard Carter, working on behalf of his patron George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Although the tomb had been entered and robbed in antiquity, it remained remarkably intact, yielding around 5,398 objects including a solid gold coffin and funerary mask, thrones, weapons, furniture, and the king's own undisturbed mummy. The discovery generated enormous worldwide press attention and gave rise to the popular nickname King Tut, along with lasting public fascination with ancient Egypt.

Rumors of a curse of the pharaohs spread after several people connected to the excavation died within a few years, most notably Lord Carnarvon, who died of pneumonia following an infection in 1923. In reality, most of those present at the tomb's opening lived for decades afterward, including Carter himself, who died of lymphoma in 1939. From the 1960s onward, selections of Tutankhamun's treasures toured internationally to museums in cities including Paris, Tokyo, London, and New York, drawing millions of visitors at each stop, before the collection was ultimately moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo.