King Tut's Face: Buck-Toothed and Blackened

Nov. 5, 2007 -- Black, leathery, shriveled and cracked, King Tut emerged with a toothy smile from his gleaming sarcophagus on Sunday, showing his face to the world for the first time.

Exactly 85 years after Howard Carter discovered the pharaoh's treasure-packed tomb, King Tut's mummy left forever his original sarcophagus and moved to a new coffin in the antechamber of his small underground tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

The new resting place is a high tech, climate-controlled glass case. According to Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, it will help preserve the mummy, which has been suffering poor condition since it was first discovered.

Wrapped in many layers of linen and resin, Tutankhamun's body was nearly destroyed by Carter and his team, when sharp tools were used to remove his gleaming gold-and-blue death mask.

When Hawass opened the sarcophagus in 2005 to perform a series of CT scans, the mummy consisted of "scattered bones", with much of the body broken into 18 pieces.

Further damage has been caused by the huge number of tourists who enter the tomb each year.

"The humidity and heat caused by the breathing of 5,000 people a day would have changed the mummy to a powder within a few decades. The only good thing in this mummy is the face. We need to preserve the face," Hawass told reporters.

The face of the 3,300-year-old pharaoh, including his distinctive overbite, and his teenage feet will be the only visible parts behind the thick glass walls.

The rest of the body, which despite restoration work carried out over the past two years resembles a badly burnt skeleton, will remain covered with beige linen.

"The face is amazing. It has magic, it has mystery, it has beauty. He has these beautiful buck teeth and ... the tourists will see a little bit of a smile on the face of the golden boy. This will make the golden boy live forever," Hawass said.

Before the public display, Hawass estimated that only about 50 people had ever seen the mummy.

"Meeting Tutankhamun face to face was a very important moment in my life. It occurred when I did the CT scan in 2005. I remember I found a note in the coffin with Howard Carter's name. Because I was the first one to do the CT scan, I put my name beside that of Howard Carter to say that I did face Tutankhamun," Hawass told Discovery News.

He added that he does not believe in the curse, even though the first time he investigated King Tut's mummy a big storm happened in the desert and the CT scan machine stopped for a hour."

Hawass contends that the legend of King Tut's curse, believed to bring tragedy to those who disturb him, will not prevent thousand of tourists to flock to the tomb and look at the glass-encased boy king. He points out the new display will generate new funds for the preservation of Egyptian antiquities.

"Tutankhamun would be happy because we are preserving the mummy," Hawass said.