It's over 3,000 years old

Nov 11, 2009 16:08 GMT  ·  By

Tutankhamen was perhaps the most renowned pharaoh that lived in Ancient Egypt. His name is mentioned in nearly all museums around the world, as well as in most history books. The actual historical figure lived between 1341 BC and 1323 BC, and was a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. Since its discovery, in 1922, the tomb and mummy of Tutankhamen have become the symbol of ancient Egypt, and have sparked a renewed public interest in all things that were related to them. The Pharaoh's burial mask is even now considered to be the symbol of all things related to those distant times.

In a bid to maintain this amazing relic intact, the Egyptian Antiquities Department announced yesterday that it would begin a five-year restoration project at the boy king's burial site. During this time, the series of brown spots that has appeared at some locations inside the tomb will also be investigated, and its effects mitigated. The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has asked for the help of the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI), of California, the US, in this delicate and hard work. The restoration will be made even more difficult by the fact that the tomb is more than 3,000 years old, which means that all the materials inside are very prone to deterioration, or simply turning into dust.

“The SCA-GCI project will include scientific analysis of the problems afflicting the wall paintings/ But that is only one aspect of the project. The ultimate goal of our work with our Egyptian colleagues is to develop a long-term conservation and maintenance plan for this tomb that can serve as a model for preservation of similar sites,” Tim Whalen, who is the director of the GCI, told Discovery News. He added that the five-year project would consists of a two-year research period, during which all problems related to the tomb's preservation would be analyzed, followed by a three-year implementation period, when all the identified issues would be addressed.

“I always see the tomb of King Tut and wonder about those spots, which no scientist has been able to explain. I have worried about these, and have asked experts to examine the scenes,” the Secretary General of the SCA, Dr. Zahi Hawass, said in a statement. “I am happy that Getty will look at the tomb and preserve its beautiful scenes,” he added.

The burial site is located in Egypt's famous Valley of the Kings, on the banks of the River Nile, opposite to the famous ancient city of Thebes (now Luxor). The entire necropolis holds a large number of tombs, but architects say that even greater numbers may still be buried in the scorching sands.