13 Things You Didn’t Know About Egypt’s Boy King
King Tut is one of the most enduring symbols of Egypt: an infamous child king that came to represent the ancient realm of the Egyptian people and spark curiosity about what made the empire tick. As famous as King Tut is, there isn’t much common knowledge about him. Here are thirteen things that you didn’t know about Egypt’s most illustrious king… He Was Called “The Boy King”
13. He Was Called “The Boy King”
King Tut is easily the most youthful Pharoah that ever lived, ascending the throne when he was a tender nine years old! Born in 1341 B.C.E., to royal parents, King Tut was destined for greatness- but nobody could have guessed how soon!
While most kiddos his age were spending lazy days swimming in the Nile River, King Tut had reign over the glorious land of ancient Egypt. How was the proud kingdom governed by a boy who hadn’t even hit puberty? King Tut had plenty of seasoned viziers to guide his actions, and probably exercise some of their own influence over the empire as well.
Despite all of his juvenile shortcomings, King Tut was a well-loved and respected ruler. We know him as “The Boy King”, but as our number twelve pick proves, it was far from the only moniker he had! He’s Had Many Names
12. He’s Had Many Names
King Tut had a dizzying host of different names throughout his short life, starting with his given name: Tutankhaten- which literally translates to “living image of Aten”.
As Aten was the Egyptian Sun God, this was quite a lofty title for the Boy King. After King Tut took the throne, he changed his name to Tutankhamun- or “living image of Amun”, a homage to the original gods of Egypt and an indication that King Tut’s short reign was destined to be different from his fathers.
King Tut’s later name change was a bold move that shook up Egypt and won him loads of additional followers, many who loved the old gods more than the new.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t escape some of the traditional ways of the ancient Pharaohs, as our number eleven pick illustrates…
11. He Married His Sister
According to the old Pharaohs, incest was the best, and they enthusiastically practised getting it on with tons of different family members.
The youthful King Tut was no exception- and he shared his royal nuptials with Princess Ankhesenamon, his sister when he was roughly nine or ten.
As unsettling as it seems- both for his age, and the sheer fact that it’s pretty nasty to marry your own sister- sibling love was par for the course in the early Egyptian empire.
King Tut’s parents: Akhenaten and Nefertiti, were siblings. The child king and his equally childish bride lived in ancient Memphis and actually conceived two children of their own! The fate of their daughters and King Tut’s blushing baby bride are not known.
Once the king died, their legacies were lost to time. His Organs Were Put In Jars Number Ten: His Organs Were Put In Jars.
King Tut’s lungs, intestines and stomach were all extracted from his lifeless body and laid to rest in urns of their own, called canopic jars.
Although this was common practice in ancient Egypt, King Tut’s special jars were as unique as the boy king himself. Instead of being carved with images of the gods, they depicted Tut’s face. Was this so that King Tut could recognize his precious organs and reassemble himself in the afterlife.
Nobody can say for sure, although we do know that Egyptians prized their delicate organs beyond almost everything else, and thought that their pickled preservation was vital to thriving in the afterlife.
Unfortunately, one of the boy king’s organs was overlooked by the meticulous embalmers, lending another air of mystery to the story that surrounds King Tut.
9. His Heart Went Missing.
While King Tut’s internal organs made it through the centuries unscathed, there was one critical element that was absent, and nobody fully understands why.
The boy king was buried without a heart, and none of the canopic jars contained the precious piece. There are several theories as to what happened to Tut’s ticker, with some saying that he died too far away from Cairo to preserve it in time.
Another sinister clue is what King Tut was given in place of a heart: a scarab amulet blessed with a funeral spell. While the venerable scarab was known for providing protection and helping the deceased find their rightful place in the immortal world, it’s still ominous that Tut’s dearest organ went the way of the dodo when he perished.
Strangely, that’s not the only bizarre part of King Tut’s burial.
8. He Was Buried With An Unusual Treasure.
All Pharaohs were buried with finery: lots of loot to shepherd them safely into the world beyond, but King Tut’s funeral furniture was in a class of its own. There were tons of miniature coffins littering the tomb and plenty of borrowed objects that seemed to belong to other Pharaohs or members of the Egyptian ruling class.
Archaeologists suspect that King Tut’s burial chamber was actually a hodgepodge of ancient Egyptian relics, many of which had no connection to the king himself. There are several theories as to why this is, but one of the most popular ones is that nobody expected the king to die, and they just had to make do with what they had.
7. He Defied His Father’s Religion.
King Tut was the ultimate rebel, defying his father’s religion and even changing his name to seal the deal. Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Tut’s parents, radically changed the Egyptian religious landscape by scrapping the old gods in favour of Aten.
This relatively new sun god was not popular with the lay-people of Egypt. In a savvy political move well beyond his years, King Tut pulled a quick switch and changed his allegiance back to Amun, an Egyptian god of old who was beloved by his loyal servants. This won him tons of popularity and established him as a powerful ruler, even at the tender age of ten.
Whether King Tut made this move of his own volition, or his viziers suggested it, we will never know.
6. His Death Is A Mystery
The boy king wasn’t long for this earth, and his death remains one of the greatest mysteries of the ancient world. Nobody knows what finally spelt the end for King Tut, but we do know that he perished right around his nineteenth birthday.
Unlike other Pharaohs who met their bloody demise at the business end of the executioner’s sword or stick, King Tut does not have any telltale marks that indicate he was assassinated. We know that the boy king was very frail, suffering bouts of anaemia throughout his life, and his over-exerted cells might have collapsed under the strain of stress and illness.
Malaria might have dealt the final blow to the feeble Pharoah, taxing his already compromised immune system with a big dose of tropical disease. Whatever the culprit, King Tut is destined to live on in pop culture forever, as our number five pick illustrates.
5. He’s The Coolest Pharoah.
King Tut might have been an anaemic mess in life, but he is one cool cat in death.
The most unlikely pop icon, King Tut, was singularly responsible for Tut-mania, a dizzying worship of old Egyptian Pharaohs that kicked off right when his tomb was unearthed in 1914. Suddenly the boy king was influencing culture, architecture, fashion and literature on a scale that he could never have imagined in real life.
The Egyptian empire was in full renaissance during the Roaring Twenties when Tut’s likeness was used to sell everything from soap to candy. In modern times, Tut was resurrected again by Steve Martin on Saturday Night Life, where he had his own cult hit, and in 1982 he became a video game star when Konami rolled out their very own tribute to the youthful Pharoah, known as “Tutankham”.
4. His Tomb Was Copied.
King Tut’s tomb is such an iconic and popular tourist destination that it was in danger of being whittled away by the hordes of gawkers who came to pay their respects to the boy king.
Tourist mania stirred up such a flurry that conservationists actually recreated the tomb itself in perfect detail so that onlookers could get the full Tut experience without trampling the delicate burial chamber to tiny bits.
The copy is as comprehensive as it gets, with even the sand being replicated in minute and perfect form, but many people are sceptical and downright horrified by this new tomb.
They think it lacks the original flair and excitement of King Tut’s original burial grounds, and while they might be right, Tut-mania doesn’t bode well for preserving the real deal.
Who knows? Future visitors might have to make do with the new experience, as Egypt tightens up their laws and starts restricting visitors to the perennially popular King Tut tomb.
3. His Death Mask Is A Famous Relic.
When you picture the relics of ancient Egypt, there’s a good chance that you’re envisioning the death mask of the boy King Tut. His intricate and well-preserved death mask is one of the most influential and impressive finds ever to be plucked out of the pyramids, and its image is famous all around the world.
Designed to depict the visage of the boy king himself, the death mask was forged of pure gold and weighed nearly twenty pounds.
The sheer splendour of the raw materials means that the mask would be worth close to $350,000 today, and that’s not counting the historical value! Death masks were standard calling cards in the ancient empire and another link between the earthly world and the spirit world beyond.
2. He Is Connected To A Curse
King Tut’s curse is one of the most famous in all of Egypt, spawning dozens of legends and pop culture references. When you think of vengeful mummies or mountains of vicious scarabs, you’re thinking of the terror that surrounds King Tut, and the hefty price that many people had to pay courtesy of the boy king. Dozens of people connected to the King Tut burial site have died in mysterious and horrific ways.
Those who didn’t die were struck with strange illnesses and even went blind as a result of their chance encounter with the Pharaoh. One unfortunate soul even took his own life, leaving behind the cryptic message “I have succumbed to a curse which forces me to disappear”.
It’s hard to see the host of deaths as anything but eerie, and it makes us second guess venturing too far into the mystery that surrounds King Tut.
1. His Tomb Might Conceal A Missing Queen.
Queen Nefertiti, King Tut’s mother, is one of the most famous figures from ancient Egypt, and nobody has any idea where her final resting place is.
Known for being a renowned beauty and ferocious Pharoah in her own right, Nefertiti is an enigmatic and enchanting figure of olden times; a queen who should have had her rightful place in the Valley of the Kings, but instead was lost to the whims of time.
Is it possible that King Tut’s tomb might contain another chamber where Nefertiti is buried? There are other bodies in King Tut’s tomb, but none of them have ever been identified as the queen herself, although speculations abound.
One of the most telltale clues that Nefertiti is lurking somewhere near her son is the sheer amount of treasure found in King Tut’s tomb. It’s unlikely that the short-lived boy king could have amassed all that loot… but we can never know.
Which of these did you find most shocking? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for watching and don’t forget to subscribe to What Lurks Below.
