Mask of Tutankhamun

Rare card · No. 52148

The mask of Tutankhamun is a gold funerary mask that belonged to Tutankhamun, who reigned over the New Kingdom of Egypt from 1332 BC to 1323 BC, during the Eighteenth Dynasty. After being buried with Tutankhamun's mummy for over 3,000 years, it was found in 1922 following the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb three years earlier by the British archaeologist Howard Carter at the Valley of the Kings. It is on public display at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Bearing the likeness of Tutankhamun in the form of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife, the mask is 54 centimetres (21.3 in) tall, weighs over 10 kilograms (22 lb) or 321.5 troy ounces, and is decorated with semi-precious stones. A spell from the Book of the Dead is inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs on its shoulders. In 2015, it was restored after its 2.5-kilogram (5.5 lb) plaited beard fell off and was hastily glued back on by museum workers. According to the British Egyptologist and archaeologist Nicholas Reeves, the mask is...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Roland Unger, Public domain