King Tut's face unwrapped and displayed

After more than 3,000 years, and just missing coming out for Halloween, he's looking rather well preserved, those Egyptian mummification techniques have withstood the test of time rather nicely indeed.

For the first time, the Cairo museum unwrapped King Tutankhamun's mummy and revealed his face to the world:


From the Associated Press:

By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer Sun Nov 4, 2:09 PM ET

LUXOR, Egypt - King Tut's buck-toothed face was unveiled Sunday for the first time in public — more than 3,000 years after the youngest and most famous pharaoh to rule ancient Egypt was shrouded in linen and buried in his golden underground tomb.

Archeologists carefully lifted the fragile mummy out of a quartz sarcophagus decorated with stone-carved protective goddesses, momentarily pulling aside a beige covering to reveal a leathery black body.

The linen was then replaced over Tut's narrow body so only his face and tiny feet were exposed, and the 19-year-old king, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was moved to a simple glass climate-controlled case to keep it from turning to dust.

I remember when King Tut's mummy and a sample of the treasures found in his tomb were on a traveling exhibit and visiting it at the museum as a child - very impressive artifacts and something that certainly piqued my interest in history.

Whether this will spur a new interest in mummies or even a new sequel to The Mummy movies is open to question.