Life, Death, and the Afterlife: King Tutankhamun

Stephanie Hoover
Yvonne Goldbaugh
English 111
24 March 2010
Life, Death, and the Afterlife: King Tutankhamun
    Egypt was ruled by kings and queens called pharaohs for centuries.   It was believed in Egypt, that as long as a king’s name was remembered, he would live for all eternity.   King Tutankhamun is one of the most famous kings of Egypt that is known today, but he is more known for what was found in his tomb than for who he was.   Although King Tut only ruled for barely a decade, the world has been trying to uncover the stories and secrets pertaining to his rise to the throne at only nine years old, his untimely demise at the age of eighteen or nineteen, and what was left to be discovered after his burial.
    Not much is known about the life of King Tut.   There are many stories out there that seem to differ a lot, but in some ways, have the same information.   According to a book called Who Was King Tut? by Roberta Edwards, King Tut was born around 1343 B.C. in the 18th dynasty and came to power at the age of nine (4).     The author Christine El Mahdy of the book Tutankhamen: The Life and Death of the Boy King, says that since she was seven years old, she has wondered about the life of “the boy king.”   She said she spent a life time trying to uncover facts about King Tut and discovered that King Tut must have been born in the time of the reign of Akhenaten, a king who was known for creating crisis’ in his time, leaving King Tut to pick up the pieces (2).   Akhenaten supposedly brought about the change of religion from a polytheistic view to a monotheistic view, and it wasn’t until Tut came into play that the original religious values were returned.   According to her research, Madhy believed that the King must have been born and grew up in a city in Egypt called Tel El Amarna (3). Today it is nearly impossible to enter the city because of political problems, but it seems to be “an abandoned, empty, desert plain” (4).
    In her book, Edwards also...