King Tut’s chariot headed to Discovery exhibition

CAIRO (AP) - King Tutankhamun’s chariot is set to fly to New York this week to finally join the Discovery Times Square Exposition exhibit of the famed boy ruler, Egypt’s antiquities chief said Monday.

Zahi Hawass said the chariot will leave Egypt on Wednesday accompanied by a conservator.

The chariot was supposed to be part of the exhibition of King Tut’s famous artifacts when it opened in April in New York, but it was delayed by the volcanic ash that suspended flights from Europe. It was unclear, however, why it then took another several months to make the trip.

The Tut exhibit features about 130 objects with more than 50 of his burial artifacts, including a golden diadem inlaid with colored glass and semiprecious stones that was found on the head of the mummy when Howard Carter discovered the tomb in 1922.

The crown was not part of the 1979 exhibition.

The exhibition also provides new information about the life and death of Tutankhamun and his ancestors based on recent discoveries made through DNA and CT scans, including that he suffered from severe malaria and fractured his leg shortly before he died.

A blockbuster exhibition on the boy-king was first shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1979 and drew millions.

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