Egypt’s “Golden Pharaoh” was buried in a three-layered coffin. That was over 3,000 years ago. King Tutankhamun was his name. Workers are repairing that sarcophagus for the first time ever.

The 7-foot, 3-inch-long coffin has an image on the lid. It is of the boy king as Osiris. That was the Egyptian god of the afterlife. But this outermost wooden layer of the coffin was in bad shape. 

“We made first aid intervention,” says Minister of Antiquities Khaled Anany. Workers isolated the coffin for seven days. Then they disinfected it for three weeks.

The gold-plated plaster on its lid and base was cracking. High temperatures and high humidity inside the tomb damaged the coffin.

Many fragments had fallen off. Workers looked for “the original place of each piece,” says the museum’s director of conservation, Hussein Kamal. Then they attached the parts. 

Now the eight-month-long restoration is nearly complete. The coffin will go on display at the new Grand Egyptian Museum in 2020. It is near the Pyramids of Giza. 

The two inner coffins have been at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. They will join the outer coffin at the new exhibit.

Tut became king when he was about eight or nine years old. He lived to be almost 18. He might have been forgotten. But his tomb was found almost 100 years ago, and it was filled with thousands of priceless artifacts. 

There are tunics, sandals, jewelry, and a chariot, plus thousands of other items. All will be displayed at the new museum.

Why did ancient Egyptians mummify bodies? What is all the writing on their elaborate layered coffins? Why did they bury the dead with tools, weapons, and treasures? They believed all this would help the people move on into the afterlife. 

Bodies had to be preserved so that they could be reborn. And the dead would need tools, weapons, and wealth to make their journey into the underworld. Bodies were even buried with instructions to help them please Osiris, god of the underworld. 

It sure took a lot of work and money to try to get Egyptians into their idea of heaven. It’s sad that they didn’t know the true God, who says, “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.” (Isaiah 55:3)