00:00For more than 3,000 years, the golden mask of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun has remained hidden in the Valley of Kings.
00:07This artifact, which measures about 54 cm high, testifies to the skill and art of the ancient Egyptians.
00:14But no one expected what the X-rays revealed of his greatest secret.
00:19King Tutankhamun was the last ruler of his family during the 18th dynasty.
00:24He ascended the throne at the age of 9, but reigned only 10 years before he died unopinionally.
00:30To be honest, in ancient Egypt, he was forgotten by the subsequent rulers.
00:36His tomb was not very important to them, to such an extent that even the tomb raiders have forgotten him.
00:42It may seem a little sad, but in reality, it is excellent news for us.
00:47As his tomb was practically forgotten, it ended up being perfectly preserved.
00:52While the other tombs in the Valley of Kings were plundered, his remained sealed and intact.
00:58Thus, when it was discovered in 1922, it contained more than 5,000 precious objects.
01:04This made Tutankhamun an instant celebrity and one of the most famous pharaohs of our time.
01:13Among his treasures was the most amazing piece, his golden mask.
01:18This mask is supposed to be the exact image of the king's face, or at least it was supposed to be, but we will come back to this later.
01:26The purpose of this exact representation of his face was to ensure that his soul would recognize him in the afterlife and return to his mummified body.
01:35According to ancient Egyptian beliefs, this would allow him to continue living in the afterlife.
01:41The mask seemed to have been incredibly difficult to achieve, but its real complexity was only revealed many years later.
01:49The first radiographs of the mask were made in 1967.
01:55At the time, these scans were mainly motivated by practical reasons, conservation.
02:00The mask was going to an exhibition in Paris, it was the first time he left Egypt.
02:05These images would allow us to see the possible changes that occurred during the exhibition.
02:10In addition, they could indicate how the mask was made.
02:15But at the time, we probably did not realize the complexity of its construction.
02:20Egyptian goldsmiths did not use modern welding techniques.
02:24So how did they make this mask?
02:27New radiographs made in 2007 gave us some answers.
02:32It turns out that the Egyptians did not use pure gold, which is 24 carats.
02:37The mask was actually made of gold 23 carats, that is, mixed with another material.
02:43Specialists have thus discovered that these gold leaves contained a small amount of copper, a red-brown metal.
02:49This operation was probably aimed at making the material more flexible and easier to shape.
02:54They then modeled the gold leaves by heating them and hammering them several times.
02:59But the mask contains another secret that was only discovered in 2015.
03:04The previous year, the staff of the Egyptian museum of Cairo prepared the exhibition of the mask when its long beard was accidentally torn off.
03:12According to another scenario, the beard would have detached over time and would have fallen on its own.
03:17In any case, the fact that the king's beard while in Cameroon has detached has caused a lot of tension.
03:23After all, this is one of Cairo's largest tourist attractions.
03:28And the experts had to solve the problem very quickly.
03:31The restoration process began with a detailed survey of the state of the mask.
03:35To do this, they had to perform a complete three-dimensional scan of the artifact.
03:40And by chance, they found something very interesting inside.
03:45In the royal beard is a gold tube, an intriguing structure that the Egyptians probably used to attach the beard to the rest of the mask.
03:55This once again proves that the manufacturing process of this mask was even more complex than the experts thought.
04:04But the mysteries do not stop there.
04:06Do you remember that we said that the mask was supposed to perfectly represent the face of the king while in Cameroon?
04:12This may not be entirely true.
04:14Some popular theories suggest that the mask was never designed for him, and that it was made for someone else.
04:22A study published in 2015 suggests that it was initially made for a woman pharaoh, his mother-in-law supposed, the famous and magnificent Egyptian queen Nefertiti.
04:33The most probable clue comes from an inscription on the mask.
04:37At first glance, it seems to refer to Tutankhamun.
04:40But after a thorough examination, the researchers noticed that something else had been written under the name of the king.
04:47The hidden royal name seems to have been modified.
04:51Originally, he wore an inscription that we translated as Queen Nefertiti.
04:59Another characteristic of Tutankhamun's golden mask, unnoticed for years, adds to the mystery.
05:06As we have already mentioned, experts think that the pharaohs who succeeded him did not respect him much.
05:12The ears pierced on the mask are one of the clues that led archaeologists to this conclusion.
05:17Some researchers think that King Tutankhamun did not wear earrings after his childhood.
05:22Thus, according to their theory, when he died at the age of 18, he should not have been represented with pierced ears.
05:30This could also confirm the idea that the mask originally belonged to Nefertiti, or perhaps to someone who was not even related to King Tutankhamun.
05:40But the mask is not the only source of mystery.
05:43In fact, it is full of puzzles.
05:46Recently, historians have discovered a clue indicating that the place where King Tutankhamun was supposed to be buried had been changed at the last minute.
05:55For years, experts have wondered why a pharaoh who reigned for nine years ended up in such a simple tomb.
06:04Compared to the size of the tombs of other pharaohs, his tomb seems a bit ordinary.
06:10The idea that a king like Tutankhamun could have such a banal resting place does not correspond to the power and importance he must have in ancient Egypt.
06:18So what happened?
06:20Apparently, this could have something to do with his successor, Pharaoh Ai.
06:25After the death of King Tutankhamun, researchers think that Ai made sure to erase him from the history of Egypt.
06:32A theory therefore suggests that he is probably at the origin of the quick decision to place the body of King Tutankhamun in a smaller and less impressive tomb.
06:42When the experts examined Ai's tomb, they found something interesting.
06:46A large wall covered with paint representing baboons.
06:50It is the same type of work of art as the one found in Tutankhamun's tomb.
06:54It seems that it is the same person who chose the works of art for the two tombs.
06:59The design and decoration of the two tombs are almost identical, suggesting that a common hand made them.
07:06But there is an essential difference.
07:09Ai's tomb is worthy of a king.
07:12It is much larger and more sumptuous, even if the style and works of art are similar to those of Tutankhamun's tomb.
07:19This theory therefore suggests that Ai would have decided on the content of the two graves.
07:24As Tutankhamun died suddenly at a young age, his great tomb was not completed in time.
07:29Usually, the pharaohs undertook the construction of their tombs, of their living, in order to ensure that everything was perfect.
07:36But Tutankhamun died when he was only 18 years old, and so he missed the time.
07:41And maybe he took advantage of the situation to order a smaller tomb for Tutankhamun and keep the largest for him.
07:48Experts think that this theory would explain why Tutankhamun's tomb is so simple and how Ai managed to erase his memory of history so easily.
07:58In the end, the story of the mask and the tomb of King Tutankhamun is full of mystery and intrigue.
08:04Each new discovery sheds a little more light on what really happened so many years ago.
08:09But one thing is certain, ancient Egypt still has many secrets to tell us.
08:14And King Tutankhamun will continue to fascinate men in the years to come.
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