Mask of Tutankhamun Mask of Tutankhamun The Mask of Tutankhamun is a death mask of the 18th-dynasty ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun (reigned 1332–1323 BC). It was discovered by Howard Carter in 1925 in tomb KV62 and is now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The mask is one of the most well known works of art in the world. According to the Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves, the mask is "not only the quintessential image from Tutankhamun's tomb, it is perhaps the best-known object from ancient Egypt itself." Since 2001, research has suggested that it may originally have been intended for Queen Neferneferuaten; her
Theodore M. Davis KV57 (tomb of Horemheb) and KV54 (Tutankhamun embalming cache). With Carter's discovery of KV62, Tutankhamun's tomb, in 1922 Davis's opinion that the "valley had been exhausted", was proved wrong. Burton later recalled that when Davis terminated his last excavation in the valley, out of fear of undercutting nearby tombs and pathways, he was only two metres away from discovering the entrance to KV62. Davis was portrayed by William Hope in the 2005 BBC docudrama "Egypt". Davis and the tomb of Queen Tiyi also feature prominently in "The Ape Who Guards the Balance" by Elizabeth Peters, where he is portrayed as