• Became king at the early age of nine.
• Died mysteriously at the age of eighteen.
• Mysterious curse thought to be responsible for the deaths of almost two dozen people involved with the discovery of his tomb.

Since his tomb was first discovered in 1922, the life of King Tut has continued to mystify and enthrall both historians and amateur sleuths alike. The young age of the ruler, his mysterious death and the curse that continues to be associated with ancient Egypt and King Tut have only increased the world's fascination with King Tut's life history.

Tutankhamun (1341 BC - 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruled 1333 BC - 1324 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. His original name, Tutankhaten, means "Living Image of Aten", while Tutankhamun means "Living Image of Amun." In hieroglyphs the name Tutankhamun was typically written Amen-tut-ankh, because of a scribal custom that placed a divine name at the beginning of a phrase to show appropriate reverence. He is possibly also the Nibhurrereya of the Amarna letters. He was likely the 18th dynasty king 'Rathotis' who, according to Manetho, an ancient historian, had reigned for nine years - a figure which conforms with Flavius Josephus's version of Manetho's Epitome.

The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of Tutankhamun's intact tomb received worldwide press coverage. It sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's burial mask remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world. In February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed that Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten (mummy KV55) and his sister/wife (mummy KV35YL), whose name is unknown but whose remains are positively identified as "The Younger Lady" mummy found in KV35.

• Rejection of the radical religious innovations introduced by his father, Akhenaten
• The most complete ancient Egyptian royal tomb ever found

Tutankhamun was nine years old when he became pharaoh and reigned for approximately ten years. In historical terms, Tutankhamun's significance stems from his rejection of the radical religious innovations introduced by his predecessor and father, Akhenaten. Secondly, his tomb in the Valley of the Kings was discovered by Carter almost completely intact - the most complete ancient Egyptian royal tomb ever found. As Tutankhamun began his reign at such an early age, his vizier and eventual successor Ay was probably making most of the important political decisions during Tutankhamun's reign.

Tutankhamun was one of the few kings worshiped as a god and honored with a cult-like following in his own lifetime. A stela discovered at Karnak and dedicated to Amun-Re and Tutankhamun indicates that the king could be appealed to in his deified state for forgiveness and to free the petitioner from an ailment caused by wrongdoing. Temples of his cult were built as far away as in Kawa and Faras in Nubia. The title of the sister of the Viceroy of Kush included a reference to the deified king, indicative of the universality of his cult.

After years of speculation, an extensive DNA analysis publicized in February 2010 confirmed that Tutankhamun was the biological son of Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV) and the mummy known as The Younger Lady who was found in KV35, and who was also a biological sister of Akhenaten, and is likely to have been either Nebetah or Beketaten. His grandfather was the pharaoh Amenhotep III, and Queen Tiye has also been shown to be his grandmother, who in turn was the daughter of the nobleman Yuya and his wife, Thuya.

Previously, speculations about Tutankhamun's parents were abundant because of the piecemeal evidence available before DNA testing. Tutankhamun had been thought to be the son of his grandparents, Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye. Others claimed that he may have been a son of Amenhotep III, although not by Queen Tiye since she would have been around 50 at the time of his birth. Professor James Allen argued that Tutankhamun was more likely to be a son of the short-lived king Smenkhkare rather than Akhenaten.

One common theory not eliminated now is that Tutankhamun's mother was Kiya, a minor wife of Akhenaten. Queen Kiya's title was "Greatly Beloved Wife of Akhenaten," and images in Akhenaten's Amarna tomb show a royal fan bearer standing next to Kiya's death bed, fanning someone who may be a princess. Researchers also thought the figure was a wet nurse holding a baby, considered to be the boy king-to-be.

More evidence of the incestuous nature of Egyptian royal marriages was discovered when Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced the recovery of a part of a limestone block depicting Tutankhamun and his wife, Ankhesenamen, along with text. These identify both Tutankhamun and his wife, Ankhesenpaaten, as "children of the king's body" or the biological son and daughter of Akhenaten.

The cause of Tutankhamun's death was unclear, and was the root of much speculation. In early 2005 the results of a set of CT scans on the mummy were released.

British archaeologist Howard Carter's team initially examined the body in the early 1920s, although they primarily were interested in recovering the jewelry and amulets from the body. To remove these objects from the body, which often were stuck fast by the hardened embalming resins used, Carter's team cut up the mummy into various pieces: the arms and legs were detached, the torso cut in half and the head was severed. Hot knives were used to remove it from the golden mask to which it was cemented by resin.

Since 1926, the mummy has been X-rayed three times: first in 1968 by a group from the University of Liverpool led by Dr. R. G. Harrison, then in 1978 by a group from the University of Michigan, and finally in 2005 a team of Egyptian scientists led by Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass, who conducted a CT scan on the mummy.

X-rays of Tutankhamun's mummy, taken in 1968, revealed a dense spot at the lower back of the skull interpreted as a subdural hematoma. Such an injury could have been the result of an accident, but it has also been suggested that the young pharaoh was murdered. A trauma specialist from Long Island University at C. W. Post Campus insisted that this injury could not have been from a natural cause. The specialist stated that the blow was to a protected area at the back of the head which is not easily injured in an accident. Theories as to who was responsible for the death include Tutankhamun's immediate successor Ay, his wife, and his chariot-driver. Calcification within the supposed injury indicates that Tutankhamun lived for a fairly extensive period of time (on the order of several months) after the injury was inflicted.

Scientists discovered a small, loose, sliver of bone within the upper cranial cavity, which was discovered from the same X-ray analysis. In fact, since Tutankhamun's brain was removed post mortem in the mummification process, and considerable quantities of now-hardened resin introduced into the skull on at least two separate occasions after that, had the fragment resulted from a pre-mortem injury, some scholars, including the 2005 CT scan team, say it almost certainly would not still be loose in the cranial cavity. But other scientists suggested that the loose sliver of bone was loosened by the embalmers during mummification, but it had been broken before. A blow to the back of the head (from a fall or an actual blow) caused the brain to move forward, hitting the front of the skull, breaking small pieces of the bone right above the eyes.

In February 2010, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that the 19-year-old may well have died of complications from malaria, combined with a rare bone disorder affecting the foot called Kohler disease II, a disease typically affecting boys aged 5-9 caused when the navicular bone temporarily loses its blood supply. As a result, tissue in the bone dies and the bone collapses, producing symptoms of a club foot. He also had a curvature of the spine.

"Not long before his death, the king fractured his leg, and the scientists think this was important. The bone did not heal properly and began to die. This would have left the young king frail and susceptible to infection. What finished him off, they believe, was a bout of malaria on top of his general ill health."

The curse of the pharaohs refers to the belief that any person who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh is placed under a curse.

There are occasional instances of curses appearing inside or on the facade of a tomb as in the case of the mastaba of Khentika Ikhekhi of the 6th dynasty at Saqqara. These appear to be more directed towards the ka priests to protect carefully the tomb and preserve ritual purity rather than a warning for potential robbers. Though there had been stories of curses going back to the nineteenth century they multiplied in the aftermath of Howard Carter's discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun. There was no actual curse found in the King's tomb. The evidence for such curses relating to King Tutankhamun has been considered to be so meager that it is viewed as "unadulterated clap trap" by Donald B. Redford.