Tutankhamun, whose tomb was discovered by British archeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922, as part of the expedition financed by Lord Carnavon, and his treasures will return to Paris for the first time in fifty-two years. The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, IMG Exhibitions and the Louvre, team up to present this stunning exhibition. These treasures will return to the newly built Grand Egyptian Museum on the outskirts of Cairo, near the Giza complex. The Giza plateau is a UNESCO World Heritage site where the pyramids, the Giza Necropolis and the Great Sphinx are situated. 
The Egyptian Secretary General of the Ministry of State for Antiquities, Dr. Mostafa Wasiry invited people to see these wonders that are touring the world before they return to Egypt.

The show carries on the French tradition that began when Jean-François Champollion deciphered the hieroglyphs on the obelisk brought back to France by Napoleon Bonaparte after his Egyptian expedition in the 19th century.

Many extraordinary Egyptian artefacts brought back by the expedition formed basis of the original Louvre Egyptian Department curated by Champollion. Vincent Rondet, Director of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre declared : "By reviving the legend of the Pharaoh covered with gold in a very potent way, the discovery of Tutankhamun's unplundered tomb, almost one hundred years ago, revived our fascination with Egypt and its buried treasures".

The pharaohs that succeeded Tutahkhamun almost managed to erase him and his predecessors of the 18th dynasty from the Egyptian Royal lineage. However, when Tutankhamun's untouched tomb was discovered by British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922, almost 3,400 years later, his memory was restored and the priceless golden treasures brought to light.

For ancient Egyptians death was considered to be a new birth, but life after death was only possible if the body was preserved by mummification and underwent strict rituals. Ancient Egyptians created a whole host of rituals, accompanied by personal objects, images and texts that were placed inside and on the walls of the tombs. Visitors to the exhibition will follow the itinerary of each richly ornamented funerary artefact on the perilous journey of the deceased Pharaoh Tutankhamun toward immortality, completed by explanations of their symbolic meaning.

The young Pharaoh was in fact the son of much loathed Pharaoh Akhenaten, considered to be a heretic because he introduced the new religion of worshipping Aten, while banning other gods and destroying their temples. Tutankhamun was born around 1342 BC in the city of Akhetaton and became king at the young age of ten and married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun, his father's third daughter by Nefertiti two years later. The couple had no surviving children, although mummified fetuses of two still-born daughters were found in his tomb, but not the remains of his wife.

The young Pharaoh embarked on a vast program restoring old temples, possibly to make up for his father's destruction of so many holy sites. However, he died quite young shortly after an accident possibly provoked by a fall. Tutankahmun suffered from recurrent bouts of malaria, and also an infection to a fracture on his left leg while further investigation of his mummified body also revealed that he had a club foot. Tutankhamun was duly buried in the Valley of the Kings until his tomb in almost pristine condition was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. The vast collection of treasures has been removed, but the young Pharaoh's mummified remains still lie in the tomb.