King Tut’s Tomb and the Battle for Egypt’s Past
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
January 3, 1924. Archeologists crowd into an ancient Egyptian tomb to uncover what awaits them in the unopened burial chamber. The world is waiting to find out. That’s because two years before, the discovery of the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun revealed antiquities so dazzling that a media frenzy ensued – newspapers, newsreels, and Hollywood movies vied to show audiences these wonders of ancient Egypt. Now, lead archaeologist Howard Carter pushes open the door to find a majestic stone sarcophagus. Inside lies Tutankhamun, whose regal face of gold and azure blue has lain in darkness for millennia. He’s about to meet the new century … and dazzle the world anew. How did an unknown pharaoh become a sensation? And how did a modern revolution change the fate of Egypt's most precious artifacts?
Special thanks to our guests, Professor Christina Riggs, author of Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century; and Heba Abd el Gawad, Heritage Specialist and Museum Researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, University College of London, and researcher with Egypt’s Dispersed Heritage project.
** This episode originally aired January 2, 2023.
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| 0:44.8 | The History Channel, original podcast. |
| 0:48.9 | History this week. |
| 0:52.2 | January 3rd, 1924. |
| 0:54.7 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 1:07.8 | The shrines lay undisturbed for more than 3,000 years, sheltering the body of a young Egyptian pharaoh who had died suddenly, unexpectedly. |
| 1:12.4 | The priests had to move with haste, interring the mummy in his three nested coffins, placing a |
| 1:19.0 | golden mask on his face. The walls were freshly plastered. The paint hadn't even had time |
| 1:26.9 | to dry. The priests left the |
| 1:29.6 | Pharaoh with all he would need in the afterlife. Chariots, daggers, trumpets, some board games. |
| 1:37.6 | Then they placed his body in the innermost of four separate shrines, sealed his tomb, and left the dead Tutankhamun |
| 1:47.6 | lying beneath the sands, where he lay for those 3,000 years. |
| 1:55.8 | Until 1922, when archaeologists digging in Egypt's valley of the kings uncovered the tomb's first steps. |
| 2:11.5 | It is now January of 1924. Two years have passed. The archaeologists have undone the work of the ancient priests, |
| 2:21.3 | taking those trumpets and chariots back up the stairs and into the light. |
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