King Tut Holiday Gift Package
By STAN PARCHIN
December 16, 2009
The perfect present for a person interested in ancient Egyptian art and history is the King Tut Holiday Gift Package ($129.00). A limited number of them have been made available for the 
final United States appearance of the traveling exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at Manhattan's new Discovery Times Square Exposition from April 23, 2010 to January 2, 2011.
The King Tut Holiday Gift Package includes two V.I.P. tickets, two accompanying recorded tours and the 64-page official souvenir book that describes more than 30 of the show's precious artifacts on display. It may be redeemed during regular business hours at the Discovery Times Square Exposition Box Office, 226 West 44 Street, New York, NY 10036 from May 3 to December 17, 2010. The tickets are not timed, allowing visitors entry to the exhibition anytime during public operating hours from May 3 to December 17, 2010.
Packages went on sale for a limited time on December 11, 2009. They may be purchased at http://kingtutnyc.com/.
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs features some 130 treasures from the tombs of Egypt's 18th Dynasty rulers (1555-1305 B.C.) and several non-royal individuals. Arranged chronologically in 10 thematic galleries are 80 funerary works that belonged mostly to the family and immediate predecessors of Tutankhamun (r. 1332-1323 B.C.) and 50 burial objects from the famous boy-king's four-room sepulcher discovered in 1922.
Among the important works of art, religious items, jewelry and pieces of furniture on view are: the Gilded Coffin and Funerary Mask of Tjuya, Tutankhamun's presumed great-grandmother; the Head of a Colossal Statue of Amenhotep IV, the young pharaoh's monotheistic father known as Akhenaten; Tutankhamun's royal Inlaid Diadem (gold crown) worn on the head of his mummified body; and a Canopic Coffinette that contained the monarch's liver.
The exhibition provides valuable insight into the tumultuous times of the late 18th Dynasty. The installation concludes with a forensics gallery, where recent CT scans of Tutankhamun's mummy are presented and interpreted in an attempt to explain the mysterious circumstances of the adolescent ruler's death. A three-dimensional reconstruction of Tutankhamun's head virtually brings the viewer face-to-face with the pharaoh.