king tut.

i remember sitting through long slide-shows narrated by my grandpa of far-off lands. he and my granny traveled often, bringing us back chinese hats or scandinavian dresses. he had a particular affinity for ancient egypt.

in third grade i was in a gifted class called pace. once a week a group of us got on a bus and left frank elementary in guadalupe, arizona for rover in tempe. we did all kinds of fun projects. i was even the editor of our little newsletter.

grandpa was scheduled one week to share details of a recent visit to egypt. (this is where i should have consulted with my family historian cousin.) my classmates were excited to see pictures of mummies and tombs. my grandpa, equipped with several slide carousels, didn’t quite make it out of the airport portion of his trip.

i began to be really interested in egypt. maybe it was my grandpa’s hundreds of slides. or maybe it was because i read the egypt game and dreamt of being as beautiful as nefertiti.

it helps that egypt plays a rather large role in the bible. i love watching charlton heston as moses every easter and i cry every time i watch the prince of egypt.

when king tut came to town, we definitely wanted to meet him, especially since he isn’t coming back anytime soon.

we saved our tickets for a rainy seattle day. the space needle was ready for christmas as we stepped in to the golden king and the great pharaohs exhibit. we walked through the ancient artifacts all while listening to indiana jones narrate.

when you do the audio tour you learn awesome things, like the fact isis married her brother osiris. set, the god of deserts and storms, kills osiris by chopping him up into dozens of pieces. isis gathers up his body parts from all over the earth and resurrects him. just long enough for her to conceive. a son. how’s that for an awkward birds and bees explanation?

at the back of the exhibit stood the largest image of king tut ever unearthed. his 10-foot statue looked down at me as i stared up at him. looking into all of their stony faces i wondered about their lives, their gods and their children.

around the corner we found king tut’s burial items. among them were two tiny, golden coffins. within them were buried two tiny fetuses. the plaque stated matter-of-factly researchers believe them to be king tut’s daughters.

those baby daughters haunted me. i couldn’t stop thinking about them after we left.