Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun's mummified face and feet have been revealed in an incredible series of photos following a nine-year restoration of his tomb.
After almost a decade of painstaking work, conservators in Egypt repaired the newly restored tomb of the Pharaoh, better known as King Tut.
They shared a series of images of the tomb - but the most striking photos showed the Pharaoh's mummified face and feet.
The mummified body of King Tut, who died at the aged 18, was wrapped in linen and displayed in a climate-controlled glass case in his underground tomb.
The tomb is in the Valley of the Kings, which can be found on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the southern Egyptian city of Luxor.
The Getty Conservation Institute, together with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities worked for nine years and, in addition to cleaning and restoring the paintings on the walls of the tomb, they focused on tackling the wear and tear that had accumulated following decades of tourist activity.
Researchers painstakingly cleaned the huge wall art in the tomb - but decided to leave a series of strange mysterious 'dark spots' that were there in 1922 when archaeologist Howard Carter first opened the tomb.
It was thought that brown spots, microbiological growths on the burial chamber's painted walls, might be growing.
However, researchers analyzed historic photographs from the mid-1920s and found they showed no new growth of the spots.
To confirm this finding, DNA and chemical analysis were undertaken and confirmed the spots to be microbiological in origin but dead and thus no longer a threat.
Because the spots have penetrated into the paint layer, they have not been removed since this would harm the wall paintings.
When the tomb was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, under the patronage of Lord Carnarvon, the media frenzy that followed was unprecedented.
Carter and his team took 10 years to clear the tomb of its treasure because of the multitude of objects found within it.
The latest project was put in place over fears the tomb was being damaged by the sheer number of tourists visiting.
While the objects Carter's team catalogued and stabilized were housed and secured, the tomb itself became a 'must-see' attraction, open to the public and heavily visited by tourists from around the world.
The tomb still houses a handful of original objects, including the mummy of Tutankhamun himself (on display in an oxygen-free case), the quartzite sarcophagus with its granite lid on the floor beside it, the gilded wooden outermost coffin, and the wall paintings of the burial chamber that depict Tut's life and death.
'Conservation and preservation is important for the future and for this heritage and this great civilization to live forever,' said Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist and former minister of State for Antiquities in Egypt, who also initiated the project with the GCI.
Music: "Mystery Bazaar" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: Daily Mail, Reuters
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
After almost a decade of painstaking work, conservators in Egypt repaired the newly restored tomb of the Pharaoh, better known as King Tut.
They shared a series of images of the tomb - but the most striking photos showed the Pharaoh's mummified face and feet.
The mummified body of King Tut, who died at the aged 18, was wrapped in linen and displayed in a climate-controlled glass case in his underground tomb.
The tomb is in the Valley of the Kings, which can be found on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the southern Egyptian city of Luxor.
The Getty Conservation Institute, together with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities worked for nine years and, in addition to cleaning and restoring the paintings on the walls of the tomb, they focused on tackling the wear and tear that had accumulated following decades of tourist activity.
Researchers painstakingly cleaned the huge wall art in the tomb - but decided to leave a series of strange mysterious 'dark spots' that were there in 1922 when archaeologist Howard Carter first opened the tomb.
It was thought that brown spots, microbiological growths on the burial chamber's painted walls, might be growing.
However, researchers analyzed historic photographs from the mid-1920s and found they showed no new growth of the spots.
To confirm this finding, DNA and chemical analysis were undertaken and confirmed the spots to be microbiological in origin but dead and thus no longer a threat.
Because the spots have penetrated into the paint layer, they have not been removed since this would harm the wall paintings.
When the tomb was discovered in 1922 by archaeologist Howard Carter, under the patronage of Lord Carnarvon, the media frenzy that followed was unprecedented.
Carter and his team took 10 years to clear the tomb of its treasure because of the multitude of objects found within it.
The latest project was put in place over fears the tomb was being damaged by the sheer number of tourists visiting.
While the objects Carter's team catalogued and stabilized were housed and secured, the tomb itself became a 'must-see' attraction, open to the public and heavily visited by tourists from around the world.
The tomb still houses a handful of original objects, including the mummy of Tutankhamun himself (on display in an oxygen-free case), the quartzite sarcophagus with its granite lid on the floor beside it, the gilded wooden outermost coffin, and the wall paintings of the burial chamber that depict Tut's life and death.
'Conservation and preservation is important for the future and for this heritage and this great civilization to live forever,' said Zahi Hawass, Egyptologist and former minister of State for Antiquities in Egypt, who also initiated the project with the GCI.
Music: "Mystery Bazaar" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: Daily Mail, Reuters
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/patryn.worldlatestnews
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