King Tut's Family Secrets - Photo Gallery - National Geographic Magazine

National Geographic Society

P.O. Box 98199 Washington, DC 20090-8199 USA

38.90531943278526, -77.0376992225647

800-647-5463

CELEBRATING 125 YEARS »

Current Issue June 2013
Table of Contents »

- ADVERTISEMENT -

King Tut’s Family Secrets

DNA evidence reveals the truth about the boy king’s parents and new clues to his untimely death.

/2010/09/tut-dna/img/01-solid-gold-coffin-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-01.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344422 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/02-tut-mark-museum-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-02.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344425 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/03-valley-of-kings-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-03.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344421 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/04-tissue-extraction-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-04.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett /2010/09/tut-dna/img/05-amenhotep-statue-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-05.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Grandfather: Amenhotep III, KV35 Now identified as Tut's grandfather, Amenhotep III ruled in splendor some 3,400 years ago. His mummy was buried with a wealth of goods.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344420 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/06-amenhotep-mummy-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-06.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Grandfather: Amenhotep III, KV35 Several hundred years later, priests seeking to protect royal remains from tomb robbers wrapped the mummies in fresh linens and reburied them in groups. Amenhotep III's body was found in 1898 hidden along with more than a dozen other royals in KV35, the tomb of his own grandfather, Amenhotep II.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344431 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/07-elder-lady-mummy-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-07.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Grandmother: Tiye, KV35EL Among the remains in the KV35 cache was an unidentified mummy known until now only as the Elder Lady. DNA has identified this regal beauty as Amenhotep III's wife Tiye, the daughter of Yuya and Tuyu, a nonroyal couple discovered in 1905 in their own undisturbed tomb, KV46. The grandmother of Tut, Tiye was embalmed with her left arm bent across her chest—interpreted as a queen's burial pose.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344436 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/08-grandmother-statue-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-08.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Grandmother: Tiye, KV35EL Tiye's statue from the temple at Karnak displays a similarly bent left arm.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344426 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/09-innermost-coffin-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-09.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344423 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/10-akhenaten-statue-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-10.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Father: Akhenaten, KV55 The identity of King Tut's father has long been a mystery. One candidate is the heretic pharaoh, Akhenaten, who abandoned the gods of the state to worship a single deity. In 1907 a badly decayed mummy was discovered in KV55, a small tomb in the Valley of the Kings containing a jumble of artifacts connected to various kings and queens of the late 18th dynasty.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344430 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/11-akhenaten-mummy-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-11.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Father: Akhenaten, KV55 Royal epithets on the defaced coffin suggested the body inside might be Akhenaten. DNA now confirms the mummy to be a son of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye—known to be the parents of Akhenaten—and the father of King Tut.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344432 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/12-limestone-stela-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-12.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344437 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/15-mother-mummy-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-15.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Mother, KV35YL According to DNA tests, this mummy, known as the Younger Lady, is both the full sister of the KV55 mummy—probably Akhenaten—and the mother of his child, Tutankhamun. (Incestuous relationships were not unusual among Egyptian royalty.) The Younger Lady is probably one of the five known daughters of Amenhotep III and Tiye.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344435 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/13-nefertiti-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-13.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344434he /2010/09/tut-dna/img/14-kiya-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-14.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344427 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/17-mummified-fetus-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-17.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344424 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/16-gilden-coffin-mark-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-16.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344439 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/18-walking-stick-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-18.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344438 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/20-wife-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-20.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Wife, KV21A When tomb KV21 was found in 1817, two well-preserved female mummies lay inside. Vandals later ripped them apart. Preliminary DNA results suggest that the one now missing her head could be the mother of at least one of the fetuses from King Tut's tomb. If so, she is most likely Ankhesenamun, a daughter of Akhenaten and the only known wife of Tutankhamun.]]> /2010/09/tut-dna/img/19-tuts-tomb-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-19.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Wife, KV21A An ivory-paneled box, also from Tut's tomb, shows him with his beloved queen. New information about his health suggests that he probably needed to use the staff he holds as a crutch.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344429 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/21-tut-mummy-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-21.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Tutankhamun, KV62 Offspring of a union between siblings, this often studied pharaoh is now revealed to have had a congenital clubfoot afflicted with bone disease, which would have made walking painful. Inbreeding may have caused the deformity and even prevented him from producing an heir with his wife, who was probably his half sister.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344418 /2010/09/tut-dna/img/22-tut-mask-714.jpg /2010/09/tut-dna/img/tut-60-22.jpg Photograph by Kenneth Garrett Tutankhamun, KV62 Whatever flaws King Tut inherited in this life, however, the image he left for eternity is one of luminous perfection—his iconic funeral mask crafted of gold, regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the flesh of the gods.]]> http://national-geographic.cafepress.com/art/s_1344428