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Wonderful things await at Discovering King Tut’s Tomb

Luxor , kingtutvegas.com Nearly 100 years ago, archeologist Howard Carter descended stairs that had been hidden beneath sand in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and drilled a hole through a door that led to the tomb of Tutankhamen, a pharaoh who ruled from Thebes during the New Kingdom era (15701069 BC). Legend has it that he exclaimed he saw “wonderful things” upon peering inside the undisturbed tomb, many of which are represented at the Luxor’s newest attraction, Discovering King Tut’s Tomb.

Luckily for Vegas visitors, it’s a lot easier to get to King Tut’s Tomb than it was for Carter to get to Tutankhamen’s fi nal resting place. Ascending stairs to the Luxor’s mezzanine level leads to the wonderful things Imagine Exhibitions has in store for contemporary budding Egyptologists.

“I wanted to put a King Tut exhibit in the Luxor as long as I can remember,” says Tom Zaller, president and CEO of Imagine Exhibitions. Imagine already has three presences at Bally’s, REAL BODIES at Bally’s, Rarely Seen and recently opened craft cocktail bar The Cabinet of Curiosities (with hidden speakeasy The Lock inside). “It’s serendipitous that this year is King Tut’s anniversary, too.”

Carter stumbled across the tomb in November 1922. Although Tutankhamen was a relatively minor pharaoh and died young, his tomb was fi lled with artifacts that Carter found before thieves could loot them as they had other tombs. Tutankhamen was provided with every luxury item he needed to be comfortable in the afterlife, and items such as jeweled scarabs that had symbolic meaning. The pharaoh himself was part of the fi nd, enclosed in a shroud in a co n within a sarcophagus like a nesting doll.

Tutankhamen’s gold funeral mask has become a symbol of Egypt and Egyptology for the masses, with the treasures of the tomb becoming a source of nationalistic pride. The actual tomb is nearly empty, although its contents remain in their motherland. “If you want to see the original King Tut artifacts, the only way you can see them is in Egypt when they open the new Grand Egyptian Museum,” says Zaller.

Discovering King Tut’s Tomb is the closest one can get to reliving Carter’s experience, starting with a passageway to a burial chamber. Animations explain the mummifi cation process and its signifi cance to society in ancient Egypt. More than 300 replicas of artifacts, galleries that relate the legacy of Carter’s discovery and modern archeological practices, and virtual reality pods that take guests on extended explorations of King Tut’s tomb are part of the journey, with storytelling and educational information related along the way.

“The King Tut story is a great story. People like it,” says Zaller. And there really couldn’t be a more appropriate place for it than the only pyramid-shaped property on the Strip, named for the city known as Thebes in Tutankhamen’s day. “I don’t think you should be anyplace but the Luxor if you’re going to have a King Tut exhibit, right?”

And there’s no need to worry about the legendary curse affl icting anyone who violates the sacred space of Tutankhamen. Or is there? ...