The Rough Guide To Tutankhamun And The Golden Age Of Pharaohs

The new exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs offers a unique insight into the art, wealth and powerof Egypt's New Kingdom. This Rough Guide provides all the background, with compelling details on the treasures and their discovery. Who was Tutankhamun? From the opulence and riches of the royal court at Thebes, to the cult of the god Amun and the great heresy of Akhenaten, the extraordinary era of Tutankhamun's Egypt is explained. The full story of the Valley of the Kings is told, shedding light on why the royal tombs were built, who built them, and how they were decorated, together with the significance of the treasures and the practice and processes of mummification. Fascinating background on Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, the discoverers of Tutankhamun's tomb, and on the fabled curse and its supposed victims. And a report on the CT scan of Tutankhamun's mummy, done in 2005 to reveal the pharaoh's true cause of death.

A guide to an exhibition of some of the artifacts found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, discussing the life and death of the young king, daily life in ancient Egypt, and ancient Egyptian religion and funerary practices.

A guide to an exhibition of some of the artifacts found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, discussing the life and death of the young king, daily life in ancient Egypt, and ancient Egyptian religion and funerary practices.

The Rough Guide Chronicle charts Egypt's remarkable history with a five-millennia timeline together with sidebars focussing on significant figures from Cheops to Nasser and on topics including irrigation, monasticism, Egyptian movies, popular music, and the Suez crisis.

In 1922 Howard Carter uncovered what is still regarded as the most spectacular archaeological discovery ever made. Tutankhamun's tomb had remained hidden in the Valley of the Kings for more than 3000 years and its discovery caused a media sensation, elevating the previously little-known Egyptian Pharaoh into the position of an international celebrity. The contents of the tomb were found almost entirely intact, including the Pharaoh's mummified body, still wearing its solid gold funeral mask. Tutankhamun lived in an era when the Egyptian Empire, centred on the royal city of Thebes, was at its pinnacle and when the wealth and power of its Pharaoh was at its greatest. This was also a period of enormous religious upheaval. Akenaten, the heretical Pharaoh and, more than likely, Tutanhkamun's father, had introduced a new religion, exclusively worshipping the sun god Aten. Under Tutanhkamun, the old religion, with its many gods and goddesses, was restored, putting an end to the heresy. In recent years research has shed new light on Tutankhamun's life and, in particular, on his death. Public interest in the boy king is as strong as ever and our knowledge of the sophisticated and complex society over which he reigned continues to grow.

"Tutankhamun has fascinated the world ever since Howard Carter's spectacular discovery of his treasure-filled tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. Egypt's leading Egyptologist, Zahi Hawass, here tells the story of this golden king, a short-lived pharaoh who came to the throne of Egypt as a child and died before the age of twenty, and of the royal dynasty that bred him. The reader meets Tutankhamun's grandparents, the Sun King Amenhotep III and his beautiful wife Tiye as well as the boy-king's 'heretic' father, Akhenaten, his stepmother Neferiti, and his half-sisters, the sun-kissed princesses of Amarna. Tutankhamun lived and died during one of the most fascinating periods in Egyptian history; this book provides a window into this extraordinary time of turmoil and treasure." "The Golden Age of Tutankhamun is illustrated, primarily with photographs of objects from the traveling exhibit. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Beyond: Treasures from the Valley of the Kings," which takes objects from Cairo's Egyptian Museum collections to Switzerland and Japan. Many of these photographs were taken by National Geographic photographer Kenneth Garrett, supplemented by archival photographs from the era of the tomb's discovery, a fascinating period of transition - in archaeology as much as politics - between the age of colonialism and the dawn of Egyptian nationalism."--BOOK JACKET.

It has been almost three decades since the first traveling exhibition of Tutankhamun's treasures drew nearly 10 million viewers and sparked worldwide "Tut-mania." Now, celebrating this priceless collection's new tour of Europe and the United States, National Geographic presents a jewel-like little book featuring more than 30 of its finest pieces. Based on the official catalog, captured in lavish detail and magnificent color, here are objects from Tutankhamun, whose tomb yielded the richest trove of all, and other 18th-Dynasty pharaohs. These superbly crafted artifacts offer vivid insight into the skill, artistry, and astonishing sophistication of Egyptian culture's golden age. Intricate jewelry glitters with precious gems, stylized statues summon ancient gods, lifelike busts bring long-dead kings and queens back to life, while vivid paintings and bas-relief panels depict not just great events but everyday scenes as well. Zahi Hawass contributes a concise history of Tutankhamun's world. The book also examines new research that provides unprecedented information about the boy king's life, his exact age, and the mystery of his death, highlighted by a unique forensic reconstruction that uses state-of-the-art CT-scan data to recreate Tut's face. A charming memento of a stunning exhibition, the Souvenir Book gazes back across the millennia to show us the astonishing splendor of a great civilization at its pinnacle.