Today in History: King Tut’s Sarcophagus Uncovered

  • Share
  • Read Later
The gold mask of ancient pharaoh king Tutankhamen

Jan. 3 1924 was the date that British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the 3,000 year old remains of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen — and King Tut still doesn’t look a day over 18.

Today marks the 87th anniversary of the day that Howard Carter’s 32 year quest to find the tomb of ancient Egypt’s 18th dynasty Pharaoh, Tutankhamen, came to a dramatic end. In the late 19th century, when Carter arrived in Egypt, most tombs of the ancient rulers had been uncovered — but that of King Tut, who died a teenager, was still unaccounted for.

(See King Tut in TIME’s Top 10 of Everything 2010.)

In a monumental stone sarcophagus, the incredible solid gold coffin-reportedly depicting the living likeness of King Tut-that had preserved the mummified remains of the boy-king for 300 centuries was uncovered. The gold coffin, along with thousands of the treasures found with the title discovery, has since been the headline act of many world tours including a six-month stint at the British Museum in London in 1972 and a U.S. exhibition organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art which ran for two and a half years, from November 17, 1976, through April 15, 1979.

(See ancient Egyptian treasures in TIME’s Top 10 Plundered Artifacts.)

Other events that happened today in history include:

Almost a century after his tomb’s discovery and over 3,000 years after his death, King Tut is still making headlines. (Via History.com.)