The kid king
It probably seems like a lot of fun to be the leader of a country. But can you imagine getting the job as a kid? It has happened a few times in history, but the most famous kid ruler is probably Tutankhamun, commonly known as
King Tut.
A kid and a king
Tutankhamun lived in ancient Egypt and became pharaoh in the year 1334 B.C. after his father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, died. He was only 8 or 9 at the time. He didn’t reign very long — he died when he was about 19.
Tutankhamun wasn’t very healthy. When his body was found thousands of years after he died, it was discovered that his left foot was deformed, so he had to walk with a cane. He also had a condition in his spine that kept him from moving his head, and it seems he also had malaria, which is an illness people get from mosquitoes. No one knows how he died, but most people think his death is linked to his illness.
Tutankhamun wasn’t a very important king in Egyptian history and was almost forgotten about until his tomb was found, making him one of the most famous rulers of ancient times.
Tut’s tomb
Ancient tombs (burial places) of pharaohs were big and grand. When a pharaoh or another important person died, their body was preserved as what today we call mummies. Their bodies were placed in a sarcophagus (a fancy decorated box), which was put in a tomb with treasures. In 1922, Tutankhamun’s tomb was found by an archaeologist named Howard Carter. There were thousands of items in the tomb like clothes, weapons, jewelry and statues.
Strangely, Tutankhamun’s tomb was smaller than experts would have expected given that he was a pharaoh. Some people think this is because he died suddenly and there wasn’t time to make him a bigger tomb.
Tutankhamun’s tomb was an important find because most others from ancient Egypt had been robbed. But the thousands of things in his tomb taught historians a lot about life at the time. Many of these items have been sent around the world for people to see. As for his mummy, it’s been studied a lot over the years but was eventually put back in the original tomb.