Tomb of Tutankhamen

The last tourists may have been leaving the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank in Luxor but the area in front of the tomb of Tutankhamen remained far from deserted. Instead of the 1 that usually descends on the area in the evening it was a hive of activity. TV crews’ trailed masses of equipment, journalists milled and photographers held their cameras at the ready. The reason? For the first time since Howard Carter 2 the tomb in 1922 the mummy of Tutankhamen was being prepared for public display.

Inside the subterranean burial chamber Egypt's archaeology supreme Zahi Hawass, accompanied by four Egyptologists, two restorers and three workmen, were slowly lifting the mummy from the golden sarcophagus where it has been rested -- mostly undisturbed -- for more than 3,000 years. The body was then placed on a wooden stretcher and 3 to its new home, a high- tech, climate-controlled plexiglass showcase located in the outer chamber of the tomb where, covered in linen, with only the face and feet exposed, it now greets visitors.