King Tut and Nefertiti Costume

  Here are some free Egyptian themed costume history colouring-in pictures for your personal use.  Children can add their own coloured decorative shapes to the gem bands on the King Tut funeral mask.
King Tutankhamun was a married boy King of 19 years when he died.  His tomb was found in 1922 by the English gentleman archaeologist Howard Carter.  It is now thought by Egyptologists that Tutankhamen's father was the Pharaoh Akhenaton (occupant of tomb 55 in the Valley of the Kings) and who ruled for 17 years.  Shared blood grouping has suggested that Tutankhamun and Akhenaton were closely related.
  Akhenaton's consort was his wife Queen Nefertiti, a most beautiful woman and the coloured statue of her head is shown right.  It is this statue which confirms the use of a cosmetic product to make Egyptian lips red. You will also find a colouring-in picture of an Egyptian headdress on that page.
Later Queen Nefertiti became co-regent and power passed to her on King Akhenaton's death, before she too met her demise.  It seems Queen Nefertiti only bore daughters, and that the mother of King Tut was in fact another secondary wife of Akhenaton.  Kiya as she was called, was at one point in favour with the king, until she was in turn usurped by Nefertiti.

   Tutankhamun was in his teens when he married his half sister, one of Queen Nefertiti's daughters called Ankhsenamun.  Keeping property, wealth and power closely within the family was thought to safeguard the continuance of the dynasty.
  Many of the ancient Egyptian names end in 'amun', but sometimes Tutankhamun is spelled as Tutankhamen. 
  The version Tutankhamun came into general use in UK when King Tut's exhibition first came to Britain in the early 1970s.  Suddenly, we were all told the correct way to pronounce it was with an ending sound of ahhhhh-moon!  These days he is most likely to be referred to as the abbreviated King TUT.
  The abbreviation is due in part to songs about the young king.  I like this shorter version of the name as this is one king that seems like an old friend, because we know so much about him.  Besides texting  'Off to see King Tutankhamun at O2' may just be a tad long for today's teenager!