#240
We all need a break from Washington’s summer heat and even hotter politics, so you might want to take a journey into another era 33 centuries ago to visit the incredible new King Tut exhibit in the nation’s capital.
“Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures” has opened not in a museum on the Mall but in an exhibition space with room to display more than 1,000 full-scale recreations of the treasures discovered by Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922.
It is one of the most spectacular exhibits I’ve seen in decades, bringing museum-quality recreations of the Tut treasures to an experiential exhibit that makes you feel as though you had been there for the incredible discovery. Don’t do the math, but I also visited the first Tut exhibit at the Smithsonian in 1976, a nationwide-blockbuster with 55 actual artifacts from the tombs—so precious they had to be transported on U.S. Navy ships from Cairo to Washington.
In this new exhibit, skilled contemporary Egyptian craftsman have constructed perfect replicas of everything from the famous burial mask to the young king’s thrones to the three burial chambers at actual size and the gold sarcophagus housing the mummy. They aren’t behind glass. You can see and touch them. Children love it.
I spoke with Egyptologist and Professor Melinda Hartwig who said this is the most historically accurate traveling Egyptian exhibition on King Tut ever mounted. She said she has seen and studied the original pieces in Cairo and is astonished at the accuracy of these recreations.
Here’s more about the story of high diplomacy that brought the original Tut exhibit to the United States.
King Tut ascended the throne when he was only nine years old and reigned only ten years before his death—most likely from complications of a broken leg—most likely from a chariot accident.
Howard Carter was obsessed with finding the tomb that he knew had to be somewhere in that vast desert. He had been digging for years in the Valley of the Kings—the ancient burial site of Egypt’s pharaohs—but was running out of time and money from his sponsor, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon.
Finally, success. The exhibit recreates Carter’s experience of entering the antechamber for the first time and seeing the breathtaking, magnificent, and unbelievable treasures of gold–from chariots, to thrones, and even the frescos on the walls of the rooms housing the enormous nesting burial chambers.
“At first, I could see nothing, the hot air escaping the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold,” he wrote about the discovery.
You see what he saw: Priceless artifacts lay jumbled all around: thrones, boxes, vases, chariots, statues, weapons, and more. Grave robbers most likely created the disorder. We never will know what they carried away, but the treasures that were left were almost beyond comprehension.
Carter found three more rooms—the annex, burial chamber, and treasury—full of magnificent treasures to carry the young king into the afterlife. All are reproduced here as you go further and further into the exhibit.
I can’t do it justice here, but I was awed by the beauty of every piece, down to the fine jewelry.
“Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures” is privately funded, produced in collaboration among Exhibition Hub, Semmel Exhibitions and Fever. “Contemporary Egyptian craftsmen, under the guidance of world renowned Egyptologists, meticulously reproduced every detail to create the most comprehensive collection in the world. This exhibition offers the closest experience to visiting King Tut’s tomb and treasures without traveling to Egypt,” the website says. And I agree.
Millions of people lined up for hours to see the original Smithsonian exhibit. This one has been traveling the globe for more than 15 years, visited by more than 7 million people. Tickets here. DC website. Location: The Rhode Island Center, 524 Rhode Island Ave NE, Washington, DC, through July 31.
