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Ancient Egypt

Pharaoh Tutankhamun

Pharaoh Tutankhamun
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 8 to 11
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   8.7

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    documentation, multi-god, single-god, pointed, sizeable, inconclusive, catalogue, scant, further, relatively, unconvinced, undeterred, investment, ultimatum, nonetheless, mishap
     content words:    Pharaoh Tutankhamun, While King Tut, Howard Carter, Lord Carnarvon, Richard Bethell, Lord Westbury, King Tut

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Pharaoh Tutankhamun
By Vickie Chao 		  
1     Pharaoh Tutankhamun, or "Tut" for short, was never among the greatest rulers in ancient Egypt. He was also never among the worst. Nonetheless, his face is often the image that comes to our mind when we think of ancient Egypt. His name is often mentioned when we discuss topics related to ancient Egypt. Why is that so? The reason is simple. While King Tut may not have had a lot of political achievements, he left behind a beautiful tomb that, miraculously, remained intact and undiscovered until Howard Carter came along in 1922.
 
2     Howard Carter was a British archaeologist who loved the ancient Egyptian civilization. In 1922, he received an ultimatum from his boss, Lord Carnarvon. Lord Carnarvon was a rich man who personally owned a sizeable collection of Egyptian artifacts. He had been funding Howard Carter for the past few years. As he had yet to see his investment pay off, he grew frustrated. He told Howard Carter that he would soon stop funding him. Howard Carter was undeterred. He was confident that that there was a tomb of a relatively unknown pharaoh buried somewhere in the Valley of Kings near Luxor and that he could find it! He was right.
 
3     On November 4, 1922, Howard Carter unearthed a staircase that eventually led to King Tut's tomb. After much digging, at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on November 26, 1922, he entered the tomb and found the 20th century's most amazing treasure. The fortune he stumbled upon was so vast and diversified that it took him ten years to catalogue the entire findings!

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