Unauthorized use is prohibited.Īfter Akhenaten died, nine-year-old Tut took the throne. The priests, elites, and common people probably disliked this change, but they had to follow their pharaoh’s orders, or at least appear to: Archaeologists have found small statues of the old gods in people’s houses from around this time. He wanted Egyptians to worship just one god-the sun, called Aten-instead of the 2,000 gods that people had believed in for thousands of years. Tut’s father, Akhenaten, had tried to change the religious beliefs of the land. He became king when he was just nine years old during a challenging time in ancient Egyptian history.
Pharaoh Tutankhamun-Tut for short-ruled over ancient Egypt from about 1333 to 1323 B.C. This tomb, belonging to the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, would soon become the most famous ancient Egyptian discovery of all time. When archaeologist Howard Carter held up a candle to peer inside on November 26, 1922, the light glinted on golden objects.
No one had seen inside this royal resting place for 3,000 years, and they didn’t know what they would find. The air was hot and musty as the explorers made a hole in the plaster-filled doorway of the ancient Egyptian tomb.
