For all these years, a golden death mask covering the face of young Egyptian monarch Tutankhamun has been a familiar image. Eighty five years since British treasure-seeker Howard Carter had located the 2000-year-old tomb, the true face of the pharaoh has finally been revealed.
The true face of the 19-year-old monarch was put on view in his underground tomb at Luxor on Sunday, when the linen-wrapped mummy was removed from its stone sarcophagus for display in a climate-controlled glass box.
The display comes at the end of a two-year restoration of the mummy itself, which was badly damaged by Carter and his team as they removed the death mask and other jewels decorating the body.
It was cut into 18 separate pieces in the process. The restoration was intended to protect the mummy for the future as there were fears that its condition was deteriorating with large number of tourists visiting the tomb.
'The humidity and heat caused by people entering the tomb and their breathing will change the mummy to a powder,'
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quoted Egypt's head of antiquities Zahi Hawass as saying.