50 Fun Facts About Tutankhamun

To which dynasty of ancient Egypt did Tutankhamun belong?

Tutankhamun was the Eighteenth Dynasty's third-to-last pharaoh, ruling roughly 1332 to 1323 BC; the same dynasty produced Hatshepsut, Thutmose III and Akhenaten.

About how old was Tutankhamun when he died?

He died at about 18 or 19, around 1323 BC, after a reign of roughly nine years; the age is estimated from the incomplete fusion of his bones.

Which god's cult at Thebes did Tutankhamun restore to prominence, undoing Atenism?

He and his queen swapped the -aten in their names for -amun and recorded the change on the Restoration Stela.

From which capital, built by Akhenaten, did Tutankhamun move the royal court on becoming king?

Akhenaten's capital at Amarna (Akhetaten) was abandoned; the court went to Memphis for administration, and Thebes regained its role as the great religious centre.

According to DNA testing, what was the relationship between Tutankhamun's parents?

Full brother and sister: the 2010 DNA study found both parents were children of Amenhotep III and Tiye, the father being the KV55 mummy (thought to be Akhenaten) and the mother the 'Younger Lady'.

Which of Akhenaten's daughters did Tutankhamun marry?

Ankhesenpaaten, Akhenaten's third daughter, later took the name Ankhesenamun; after Tutankhamun's death she disappears from the record.

How old was Tutankhamun when he became pharaoh?

He became pharaoh at eight or nine, around 1332 BC, after the short reigns of Akhenaten's successors Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten.

What throne name did Tutankhamun take on his accession?

Priests of his cult held titles such as 'First Prophet of Nebkheperure'.

Which official, 'overseer of the treasuries', carried out Tutankhamun's restoration programme?

Maya, overseer of the treasuries, directed the rebuilding of the temples; his own tomb at Saqqara, near Horemheb's, was rediscovered in 1986.

At Karnak, Tutankhamun laid out an avenue of sphinxes leading to the temple of which goddess?

The avenue led to the precinct of Mut, Amun's consort, south of the main Karnak temple; its sphinxes, first carved for Akhenaten and Nefertiti, were given new ram heads.

With which northern kingdom did Tutankhamun re-establish diplomatic relations?

Relations with the Mitanni, the Hurrian kingdom on the upper Euphrates, were renewed; gifts from various countries in his tomb suggest the diplomacy worked, while campaigns against Nubians and Asiatics were recorded.

Tutankhamun was one of the few pharaohs to be what during his own lifetime?

Worshipped as a god in his own lifetime, Tutankhamun had temples to his deified form built in Nubia, an honour most kings received only after death.

Which two medical conditions have been confirmed in Tutankhamun's mummy?

DNA showed repeated infection with the most severe malaria strain; the compound fracture showed no healing.

How could scientists tell Tutankhamun's leg broke before death, not during modern handling?

Embalming substances were found inside the fracture of his left femur on the 2005 CT scan, so the break had to predate mummification; it was probably suffered days before his death.

How many canes and sticks were found in Tutankhamun's tomb?

More than 130 canes and sticks were catalogued; the 2010 CT and DNA study tied them to his clubfoot and Köhler disease, which would have made walking painful.

How tall was Tutankhamun's mummy?

About 167 cm (5 ft 6 in): slightly built and a little taller than average for the period, with good teeth and the pronounced overbite seen in his family line.

What did the 1968 X-ray find inside Tutankhamun's skull that briefly fuelled a murder theory?

Two loose bone fragments showed up in Ronald Harrison's 1968 X-ray; the 2005 CT scan showed they came from the embalming or the modern unwrapping, not from a blow to the head.

Which successor is shown performing the opening-of-the-mouth ritual on Tutankhamun's burial chamber wall?

The rite was performed by the next pharaoh, so Ay's succession was settled by the funeral; he was probably an old man.

Which commander-in-chief of Tutankhamun's army eventually became pharaoh after Ay?

Horemheb, who had been the army's commander-in-chief and Tutankhamun's designated deputy, took the throne after Ay and later chose Ramesses I as his heir.

The search for Tutankhamun's missing mortuary temple led in 2021 to the discovery of what?

Zahi Hawass's team, hunting for the mortuary temple near Medinet Habu, instead uncovered the lost city of Aten, a 'golden city' founded by Amenhotep III, announced in April 2021.

Why was Tutankhamun buried in a sepulchre unusually small for a king?

His royal tomb was unfinished when he died unexpectedly at about 18; burial had to happen within the customary 70 days, so a smaller tomb meant for someone else was adapted.

What is the number of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings?

KV62's entrance lay under debris and workmen's huts from the later cutting of KV9, the tomb of Ramesses VI, which hid it from robbers; KV55 held the mummy thought to be his father.

Which American excavator gave up the Valley of the Kings concession in 1914, declaring the valley 'exhausted'?

Theodore Davis had found Tutankhamun's embalming cache (KV54) and a small pit with gold foil bearing the king's name, and declared that pit to be the lost tomb.

Who led the excavation that found Tutankhamun's tomb?

He had begun a systematic search of the valley in 1915 and took ten years to catalogue the finds.

Which aristocrat financed Carter's excavations?

George Herbert took up Egyptology after a doctor sent him to Egypt's warm climate following a 1901 car accident.

On what date was the first step of the tomb's staircase uncovered?

On 4 November 1922 Carter's workmen uncovered the first step; some accounts credit a water boy, Hussein Abdel-Rassoul, digging outside the work area.

How many items were found in Tutankhamun's tomb?

Carter's team catalogued 5,398 items, among them a solid gold coffin, trumpets, a lotus chalice, food, wine, sandals and linen loincloths.

How long did the excavator take to catalogue the contents of the tomb?

Howard Carter took 10 years, from 1922 to 1932, to clear and catalogue the tomb, the most intact royal burial ever found in the Valley of the Kings.

The blade of a dagger found in the tomb was made of iron from what source?

The iron came from a meteorite: a 2016 X-ray fluorescence study showed the blade's nickel and cobalt levels match meteoritic iron; a miniature headrest, an Eye of Horus amulet and chisel blades were also iron.

Whose cartouches were found beneath Tutankhamun's on the golden Nut pectoral and canopic coffins?

Neferneferuaten's cartouches, partly erased and overwritten with Tutankhamun's, show that many burial goods, including the canopic coffinettes, were recycled from a predecessor who was probably a female king.

On 4 November 2007, exactly 85 years after the discovery, what happened to Tutankhamun's mummy?

It went on display in a climate-controlled glass box inside KV62 on 4 November 2007, the face shown in public for the first time, to protect it from tourists' humidity and warmth.

How long after the discovery of the first step did Lord Carnarvon die, fuelling talk of a curse?

Carnarvon died on 5 April 1923, five months after the first step was found, of pneumonia and blood poisoning from a mosquito bite he had nicked while shaving.

Of the 58 people present when the tomb and sarcophagus were opened, how many died within a dozen years?

Only eight of the 58 died within a dozen years; Carter himself lived until 1939, and Lady Evelyn Herbert, among the first inside, died in 1980.

How old was the tomb's discoverer when he died in 1939?

Howard Carter died of Hodgkin's lymphoma in London on 2 March 1939 at 64, sixteen years after the discovery.

Which US president had a pet dog named King Tut?

Herbert Hoover's Belgian shepherd King Tut featured in his 1928 campaign photographs; 1920s Tut-mania also produced the Tin Pan Alley hit 'Old King Tut' by Harry Von Tilzer.

Which comedian's 1978 novelty song 'King Tut' sold over a million copies?

Steve Martin performed 'King Tut' on Saturday Night Live in April 1978 backed by the Toot Uncommons, members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; it reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which Paris museum staged the 1967 Tutankhamun exhibition that drew over a million visitors?

The Petit Palais show 'Toutankhamon et son temps' (1967), arranged by Egyptologist Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, drew about 1.24 million visitors, a record for a Paris exhibition at the time.

How many people saw the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition on its 1976-79 US tour?

More than eight million people saw it on the 1976-79 US tour, which opened at the National Gallery of Art in Washington; Henry Kissinger backed the tour as diplomacy toward Egypt.

Which Giza museum, opened in 2025, became the permanent home of Tutankhamun's treasures?

The Grand Egyptian Museum, beside the Giza pyramids, opened fully on 1 November 2025 and took the complete Tutankhamun collection from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.

Which Egyptian priest-historian's king list names 'Rathotis', identified with Tutankhamun?

Manetho, an Egyptian priest of the third century BC who wrote in Greek, listed 'Rathotis' among the Eighteenth Dynasty kings; his Orus and Acencheres are usually matched with other rulers of the period.

Which woman, known from her tomb at Saqqara, was Tutankhamun's wet nurse?

Maia's tomb, found at Saqqara in 1996 by Alain Zivie, shows her nursing the young king and calls her 'wet nurse of the king'; Zivie has suggested she was the princess Meritaten.

How many times was Tutankhamun's tomb robbed in antiquity?

The tomb was robbed at least twice soon after the burial; the thieves took perishable oils, perfumes and some jewellery, and officials resealed the entrance each time.

Which 2014 BBC documentary drew ridicule for its 'virtual autopsy' reconstruction of the king?

Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered, presented by Dallas Campbell on BBC One, built a 'virtual autopsy' from CT data that gave the king a clubfoot, buck teeth and wide hips, a look many experts disputed.

How many daughters of Tutankhamun were buried with him in his tomb?

Two mummified daughters lay in the Treasury; 2011 CT studies showed one born prematurely at five to six months and the other near full term, both dying at or soon after birth.

Who was Tutankhamun's principal vizier for Upper Egypt?

Usermontu, whose name honours the Theban war god Montu, served as southern vizier; the office was split between Upper and Lower Egypt, with Pentju the other vizier.

Pharaoh Ay named which son as his successor, only for him to die before taking the throne?

Nakhtmin, a general who bore the title 'king's son', was Ay's designated heir but died before him, and the throne passed instead to the general Horemheb.

Whose tomb did Horemheb deface while leaving Tutankhamun's untouched, presumably out of respect?

Horemheb's campaign of erasure was one of the most elaborate and successful in Egyptian history.

How many gilded shrines were nested around Tutankhamun's sarcophagus in the burial chamber?

Four gilded wooden shrines, nested one inside another, filled the burial chamber almost wall to wall around the quartzite sarcophagus and its three coffins.

The Treasures of Tutankhamun tour opened in 1972 in which city?

It opened at the British Museum in London on 30 March 1972, the 50th-anniversary year of the discovery, and drew more than 1.6 million visitors before moving on to the Soviet Union and the United States.

The 2005 'Golden Age of the Pharaohs' tour opened in which US city?

It opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in June 2005, then travelled to Fort Lauderdale, Chicago and Philadelphia before a second US leg that began in 2008.