Ancient Egypt, buried in the sands, had largely vanished from view and wasn’t even on the Grand Tour of elite young Europeans in the 18th century. By the early 1900s, Carter’s years of searching in the Tomb of the Kings was swept along in the wake of a gripping tale of exploration and international competitiveness which had really begun with the scientists who accompanied Napoleon’s campaigns to Egypt.

The breath-taking story of the discovery was recorded in Carter’s own words in his diaries and correspondence, in the new media of newspapers across the world, and in the magnificently composed images taken by British photographer Harry Burton. The world held its breath in the weeks, months and even years that followed as the unimaginably stunning finds were gradually revealed. It would be three years before the sarcophagus would be opened to reveal the now world-famous mask of the young king. Even now, 100 years later, new scientific methods continue to cast fresh light on Tutankhamun’s life and death.

The thousands of beautiful and perfectly crafted items, piled into the hastily-equipped tomb, serve to tell archaeologists the story of the impact of Egypt’s past and her enduring unique society and beliefs. For Tutankhamun’s cultural inheritance, even from the earliest days of Egypt (some 1,700 years before) is loud and clear, once you know where to look.

After his father, Akhenaton’s heretical removal of the ancient gods and religion, the boy-king had begun to re-install the old ways, ‘the right way’. As we take a closer look at the ‘wonderful things’ buried with Tutankhamun, we can see how he was a product of his time and of a rich and uniquely abiding culture. They also reveal how Egypt collided with the many thriving civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean in trade and in war, and was inevitably influenced by them, even as she influenced those cultures too.

How Egypt developed after Tutankhamun’s rule is the story of how Tutankhamun’s tomb was lost, even as Egyptian culture was admired, and its land coveted by cultures far and wide. Other cultures crowded in, until the Romans overwhelmed them all.

Thanks to Carter’s discovery, Tutankhamun and his Ancient Egypt had a huge impact on 20th century art and ideas. Just how do the discovery and its finds continue to fascinate us today?