Upper part of the third and innermost anthropoid coffin which contained the mummy of King Tutankhamun It makes for a dramatic tale but misses out the dull yet telling details that archaeological work in occupied Egypt required, as well as the confusions, uncertainties, and adaptations that any work entails. It contains three anthropoid coffins nested within each other depicting the king in the Osirian position.

Its four corners are decorated with figures of the four deities of protection whose outspread wings safeguard the sarcophagus and the mummy of the king. The king’s burial chamber is 6m x 4m wide and housed the king’s outermost rectangular-shaped quartzite sarcophagus. The discovery at that time received worldwide press coverage, capturing public imagination. He was buried within his tomb (KV62) located at the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of Luxor and was discovered in November 1922 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter. The King’s mysterious death at a very young age has continued through the years to fascinate millions throughout the years. Howard Carter examining the third coffin of gold of Tutankhamun, 1923. He is best known for his intact tomb and treasured funerary collection. Tutankhamun, also known worldwide as the Golden Pharaoh, was an 18th Dynasty king of the New Kingdom. A series of events that took place over several weeks – in fact, several months and years – have collapsed into a single moment elided into one word and act, ‘discovery’. “The story of the tomb of Tutankhamun has been told so many times that fact and fiction long ago agreed to share the burden. Soon after the discovery of the tomb, both the inner and middle coffins were transferred to the Egyptian Museum Cairo while, the outer gilded coffin was left inside the tomb. The mummy itself now rests in the outermost mummiform coffin in the tomb at Thebes. This is the third and innermost of three mummiform coffins of Tutankhamun.

Inside it lay the king’s mummy whose head was covered with the iconic gold mask of the boy king. The innermost coffin, known as the solid gold coffin or the innermost shrine, is made entirely of gold and weighs approximately 110.4 kilograms (243 pounds). Deities of Upper and Lower Egypt protect the body of the coffin with their wings. The innermost coffin of Tutankhamun is intricately decorated with various symbols and hieroglyphs, and it was designed to protect and preserve the body of the young king Tutankhamun.

Gold egyptian chest the mummy returns