Monday, July 26, 2010

Exhibition: Tutankhamun in Denver

Journal Star (L. Kent Wolgamott)

A thorough overview of the exhibition for anyone contemplating a visit.

In the United States, King Tut is the most famous of all the Egyptian pharaohs. In Egypt, it's a different story.

"We don't pay that much attention to him," said Amira el Nakeeb, travel writer for Cairo's Al-Ahram Weekly Newspaper. "He's not that important."

Historically speaking, el Nakeeb is spot on.The boy pharaoh ruled for just a decade and died as the result of some kind of accident at about age 19.

For political/cultural reasons rooted in the ancient Egyptian religion, his successors did their best to purge him from history, going as far as to put their names on some of the statues that were made to commemorate Tutankhamun, who was born about 1343 B.C. and was pharaoh from about 1333 B.C. to his death in about 1324 B.C.

No comments: