While Tutankhamen was not a legendary king, in 1922 when Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered his undisturbed tomb filled with a vast treasure of artifacts and gold, it cast the long-dead pharaoh into the worldwide limelight. His treasure made him perhaps, the best-known of the many pharaohs. The tomb lies in the Valley of the Kings and consists of four nested shrines through which a visitor must pass before reaching the Boy King's sarcophagus.
The outermost shrine is about nine feet high and measures approximately 16 1/2- by -10 1/2-feet. Constructed of heavy cedar panels, the shrine was plastered, gilded and inlaid. Hieroglyphs, symbols and art adorn them. Inside, the walls are etched with passages from the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Book of the Divine Cow that tells of the destruction of mankind. Winged solar discs and 13 vultures adorn the inner ceiling.
The second shrine is smaller, measuring a little over 12-by-71/2-feet and just over seven feet high. This shrine somewhat replicates the ancient shrine of Per-wer of Upper Egypt. Outside and in, the wooden planks used to construct it are plastered and layered with gold sheets. The doors feature carefully crafted images of Tutankhamen standing before Osiris, god of the dead and the underworld, and Ra-Horakhty or Ra, the sun god. There are also depictions of Osiris' sisters Isis and Nephthys mourning the dead king. Again, there are many passages from the Book of the Dead etched into the walls.
The third shrine closely resembles the second and is constructed in 10 sections, plastered and overlaid with golden sheets. The walls are inscribed with texts from the Book of the Dead, Egyptian funeral texts as well as images of winged solar discs and rows of birds with their wings spread. The shrine's interior walls are covered with a procession of gods, while the doors depict Isis and Nephthys spreading their wings to protect Tutankhamen.
The innermost shrine is believed to be a replica of the ancient Palace of the North with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, bas relief figures of Nephthys and Isis and many gods. The roof's interior depicts several gods, with Isis and Nephthys standing guard at the doors. The interior walls bear the text of a spell from the Book of the Dead.
Tutankhamen's red granite sarcophagus has a sloped lid. The lid is flawed and cracked and prompted Carter to speculate that it may have been a replacement hastily prepared at the time of the pharaoh's untimely death. Yet the sarcophagus was carved from a single block of quartzite and is decorated with depictions of Isis and Nephthys and goddesses Selkis and Neith chiseled in high relief. They are posted at the four corners of the sarcophagus their wings spread to protect the Boy King.
