News from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (see below)
Tomorrow (11/4/07) the face of King Tutankhamun will be revealed as Zahi Hawass secretary, General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). He will remove the mummy of king Tutankhamun from its sarcophagus, now at his tomb in the Valley of the Kings to a plexi-glass showcase equipped with state-of-the art equipment to control humidity and heat.
Hawass announced that such a removal came within the framework of the SCA’s project to protect and preserve royal mummies. Every day more than 5000 visitors enter the tomb which increase the rate of humidity and heat inside the tomb which on its turn threaten the mummy which is in a bad condition. Three years ago when Hawass, the last one who saw the mummy, examined the mummy using a CT-scan. He realized then that it was in very badly preserved and divided into 18 solid pieces.
In 1925, Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered King Tut’s tomb, removed the mummy out of its sarcophagus using hard and pointed instruments to dismantle the golden mask out of the mummy’s face and remove more than 100 amulet bedded inside the mummy’s body.
Hawass asserts that the high rate of humidity and heat inside the tomb is threatening the mummy and may lead to its complete deterioration. Therefore, Hawass said, the removal of the mummy inside a well-equipped showcase, like those found in the mummies rooms in the Egyptian museum, will protect it for thousands of years to come.
He said that the mummy will be covered with a linen wrap and the mummy’s face will be displayed to the public who will see for the first time the real face of king Tutankhamun.
Some scholars believe that the mummy in its showcase must be transferred to the mummification museum in Luxor or the Egyptian museum in Cairo but the SCA experts see that the mummy is linked to the tomb and it should be displayed inside of it.
