Restrictions to visiting Tutankhamuns Tomb

RESTRICTIONS TO VISITING TUTANKHAMUNS TOMB

Tut tomb closure

We have recently been informed that the Antiquity services in Egypt have restricted visits to King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings to 400 visitors per day and it will be closed from midday to 1300 hours each day for renovations. However, entry to King Tutankhamun’s tomb has always been an optional extra and is not covered in the basic Valley of the Kings entry ticket. The tomb will also be closed completely from 1st May 2008 for one year for more extensive renovation work.

We very much regret any disappointment this may cause and trust you will appreciate that restrictions of this nature are beyond our control. should the situation change, we will advise you accordingly. Please note that there is no pre-purchase available on these tickets to avoid them being sold on the black market.

However, there is another beautiful tomb known as Ramses VI, also situated in the Valley of the Kings which is definitely worth visiting. The fee for this is about 50 L.E. (approx £4.50) and whilst at the time of writing it has no plans to close, the advice is to check upon arriving in Egypt if this remains the same.

You can see the famous god-like golden mask along with 1700 objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun at the Egyptian Museum in the centre of Cairo located on Tahrir Square. The museum houses the greatest collection of antiquities in the world, including the priceless objects taken from Tutankhamun’s tomb.

The Tomb when discovered by Howard Carter

Inside his small tomb, the king's mummy lay within a nest of three coffins, the innermost of solid gold, the two outer ones of gold hammered over wooden frames. On the king's head was a magnificent golden portrait mask, and numerous pieces of jewelry and amulets lay upon the mummy and in its wrappings. The coffins and stone sarcophagus were surrounded by four shrines of hammered gold over wood, covered with texts, which practically filled the burial chamber. The other rooms were crammed with furniture, statuary, clothes, a chariot, weapons, staffs, and numerous other objects. But for his tomb, Tutankhamen had little claim to fame; as it is, he is perhaps better known than any of his longer lived and better documented predecessors and successors.