The Assassination of King Tut Three thousand years ago, a boy became king. Tutankhamun, the most famous of all the Egyptian pharaohs, died before his 20th birthday. The cause of death: a mystery. Even though the crime occurred over 3,000 years ago, evidence still remains. Examine the clues and see if you can name the prime suspect. You be the detective and evaluate the clues. Find out about the victim and the prime suspects. Whodunit? Was it Tut’s ambitious commander-in-chief of the most powerful army in the known world, fearful that Tut’s youth and physical weaknesses might leave Egypt vulnerable to attack? Perhaps Maya, Tut’s chief finance minister and the man who held the country’s purse strings, felt his wealth threatened by the young king. Did Ankhesenamun, Tut’s bride since childhood, blame him for two heartbreaking miscarriages? Or could it have been Ay, Tut’s prime minister, advisor, protector and father figure, who wanted the boy king cast aside in his own insatiable quest for power?
Egyptologist James Henry Brested once called Akhenaten “the first individual in history.” Others view him as a prophet of monotheism. High praise indeed for a pharaoh whose reign was scandalous, and whose name was eradicated from his family’s temples. In “The Rebel Pharaoh,” meet the man born Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten to signify his sole allegiance to Aten, forsaking Egypt’s traditional pantheon. See the dramatic results of his slogan “Living in Truth,” as Akhenaten broke from 2,000 years of artistic tradition to create art and sculpture with stylised forms and exaggerated features, perhaps reflecting his own physical deformity.
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