Tutankhamun (or "King Tut") is perhaps best known as the only pharaoh whose tomb (KV62) was discovered intact. The wealth of objects discovered in this young king's tomb naturally lead to speculation on what might have been contained in the plundered tombs of far more significant Pharaohs. However, he is historically important as well.

Tutankamun's parentage is uncertain. An inscription calls him a king's son, but it is debated which king was meant. He was probably a son either of Amenhotep III (and thus the brother of Akhenaten), or of Amenhotep III's son Amenhotep IV (better known as Akhenaten), perhaps with his enigmatic second queen, Kiya.

Tutankhamun ruled Egypt for eight to ten years; examinations of his mummy show that he was a young adult when he died. Recent CT scans place Tut at age 19.

During Tutankhamun's reign, Akhenaten's Amarna revolution (Atenism) began to be reversed. In year 3 of Tutankhamun's reign (1331 BC), when he was still a boy of about 11, the ban on the old pantheon of gods and their temples was lifted, the traditional privileges restored to their priesthoods, and the capital moved back to Thebes. The young pharaoh also adopted the name Tutankhamun, changing it from his birth name Tutankhaten.

Tutankhamun was married to Ankhesenpaaten, a daughter of Akhenaten. Ankhesenpaaten also changed her name from the -aten endings to the -amun ending, becoming Ankhesenamun. They had two known children, both stillborn – their mummies were discovered in his tomb.

On March 8, 2005, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass revealed the results of a CT scan performed on the pharaoh's mummy. The scan gave proof that Tutankamun probably died of injuries following an accident. Egyptian scientists confirmed that Tutankhamun died of a swift attack of gangrene after breaking his leg.

A now-famous letter to the Hittite king Suppiluliumas I from a widowed queen of Egypt, explaining her problems and asking for one of his sons as a husband, has been attributed to Ankhesenamun, who would have been seeking to attain the throne in her own right.

In any event, after Tutankhamun's death, Ankhesenamun married Ay, possibly under coercion, and shortly afterwards disappeared from recorded history.

Tutankhamun was briefly succeeded by the elder of his two advisors, Ay, and then by the other, Horemheb, who obliterated most of the evidence of the reigns of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay.

The Egyptologist Howard Carter, employed by Lord Carnarvon, discovered Tutankhamun's tomb (since designated KV62) in The Valley of The Kings on November 4, 1922 near the entrance to the tomb of Ramses VI.

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