KING TUT

The last time the world’s most famous pharaoh toured the United States, he visited California, Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania—but not Texas. King Tut makes up for that Lone Star oversight next month when the reincarnation of the record-setting exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs arrives at the Dallas Museum of Art on Oct. 3.

Tut’s trinkets have visited America twice before: Between 1976 and 1979, the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibit traveled to seven U.S. cities, and another exhibit, The Golden Age of the Pharaohs, toured four cities nearly 30 years later and drew more than 4 million people. For 2008, organizers went big for Big D. “Most of the artifacts in this exhibition weren’t in the original 1970s tour,” says Judy Conner, director of marketing and communications for the DMA. Curators stocked the exhibit with more than 130 artifacts—50 alone that were found in the boy king’s tomb—many on their first trip outside of Egypt.

At the museum, you can admire objects between 3,000 and 3,500 years old plus photos showing Howard Carter’s discovery of Tut’s tomb in 1922. “You can see the amazement on Carter’s face when he opens the tomb,” Conner says. “The photographs show why it was the single most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century.” After seeing the jewel-encrusted gold jar that once held Tut’s internal organs, we won’t argue with that.

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Learn more about the boy king’s reign—and see how Tut fits into history—with this timeline.

King Tut, felled by a broken leg? This 2006 article from National Geographic says science may disprove the popular myth that Tut was murdered.

Get an up-close look at some treasures from Tut’s tomb, including a gold mask and an intricately carved sarcophagus, with this video taken in Cairo.

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