TUTANKHAMUN: Pharaoh, Icon, Enigma

A hundred years after Tutankhamun's tomb was rediscovered, leading Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley shares 10 unique perspectives on his enduring legacy. In the Valley of the Kings a near-complete royal burial, an ancient mummy, and golden riches beyond imagination were discovered by archaeologists. The lost tomb of Tutankhamun ignited a media frenzy, and propelled into overdrive rumours of a deadly ancient curse. The book takes a familiar tale and turns on its head. Tyldesley rediscovers the teenage pharaoh and his family, ancient embalmers and tomb robbers, famous Western explorers and forgotten Egyptian archaeologists. It's a journey that spans from ancient Thebes in 1336BCE, when a young king on a mission to restore his land met an unexpected and violent end, to modern Luxor in 1922CE, as the tomb's discovery led to a fight over ownership that continues to this day. Tutankhamun knew that death did not have to be the end, but in order to achieve an afterlife, he had to be remembered. Throughout his reign he worked to impose his presence on his land so that his story might be remembered by generations to come. Each section is a straightforward chronological narrative split into chapters with titles like The King's Tale: Tutankhamun the Restorer, and The Queen's Tale: Tutankhamun's Sister-Wife Ankhesenpaaten, The Waterboy's Tale: Seeing Tutankhamun Through Different Eyes and The Bishop's Tale: Investigating the Dead. Tyldesley revisits the 1968 and 2005 surveys, pointing our discrepancies between these findings and the results of later DNA investigation. Nicholas Reeve's theory that Nefertiti is buried in a hidden room in KV62 'seems a step too far' and declares that the King was 'the most influential man in the Bronze Age Mediterranean world'. 293pp, eight pages of colour and archive photos.