The golden mask of Tutankhamen
It was found upon the linen bandages covering the head of the mummy of King Tutankhamen. It was considered to be a masterpiece of art, not only among the collection of the king but in Egyptian art generally. This mask has a great reputation as it travels a lot all over the world and it its due this mask that King Tutankhamen has gained his reputation, but this mask never left its place since 1984. The mask is made out of pure gold and it weighs 11 kg of pure solid gold with some precious and semi precious stones. It represents the facial features of King Tutankhamen with his shoulders, he is represented wearing the nms headdress, and the strips of the headdress are made out of blue glass, the same as the eye brows and the eye lids. While the white of the eye is made out of calcite and the black is made out of obsidian. There is a cobra and a vulture on the forehead as means of protection for the king, the vulture is purely made out of gold while its mouth is made out of lapis lazuli, turquoise and cornelian. The face reflects the vividness, strength and youth of the king, he is represented wit ha beard which is completely made out of precious stones (turquoise). The ear lobes are pierced to house earrings. The same fashion of the Amarna art. Two wrinkles are shown upon his neck as a sign of prosperity and youth. The king is represented wit a large beaded collar around his neck, the edge of the collar is ending in the form of a falcon head so that the king would be under the protection of Horus, the beaded collar has several rows of precious and semi precious stones as turquoise, lapis lazuli an cornelian. The strips of the headdress and the nape are painted blue an imitation of god Re whose hair was made out of lapis lazuli as the king would like to be identified with god Re. on the back of the mask there are several columns of hieroglyphs, these columns are actually parts from chapter 151 B from the Book of the Dead. In this chapter he would like to confirm the protection of that mask by identifying each part of that mask with a certain god or image of that god. For instance, according to these inscriptions in order to secure his protection he identified the right eye of the mask with the day barque of the sun god Re, the forehead with god Anubis and the hair with god Re.
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