Thirty years after their first triumphant world tour, the Pharoah’s treasures are on the road again.  King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs opened this week at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and has announced engagements in Indianapolis and Toronto next.  Want to take your kids?  Good call.  Here’s what to expect.

Timed entry, long lines, and no strollers

Kids five and older will be fascinated by the objects and legends of King Tut, but parents will have to clear a few hurdles to get to them.

Timed entry tickets keeps the wait times down, but you’ll stand in line for up 30 minutes to enter the exhibit with your group.  Since antsy kids and lines don’t mix, I’d definitely recommend bringing your own entertainment.  If you forget, hit the gift shop which stocks a mind-blowing selection of Egypt-themed merchandise in the Treasures of Ancient Egypt store.  Seriously, who buys this stuff?  Oh right, I do.

Soft front carriers are permitted inside, but strollers and baby backpacks are not.  We saw a few people with toddlers—they looked absolutely miserable (the parents, not the toddlers).

Getting the most out of the tour

Definitely spend the $7 for the audio tour.  A lot of it will go over your kids’ heads, but a lot of it won’t.  Of the 80 objects in the exhibit, about 20 have short narrations (by Omar Sharif) complete with music and interviews.  Our 7 and 9-year-old kids listened intently to the entire thing.

If you read up on King Tut, Howard Carter (the archaeologist who discovered his tomb), and Lord Carnarvon (the guy who bankrolled the search and excavation) before you go, your kids will enjoy their visit exponentially more.  Books that cover the so-called “curse of King Tut’s tomb” seem to go down particularly well.

Videos and wall-sized excavation photos add a lot of drama to the exhibit and put the artifacts in perspective, so take the time to check them out too.

Highlights for kids

In a story tailor-made for children, Tutankhamun ascended the throne 3,300 years ago at the age of nine, ruled for ten turbulent years, and died under mysterious circumstances at the age of 19.  The exhibit includes many of the boy king’s personal items as well as treasures meant to insure his divine immortality.

Our kids were deeply impressed by the huge stone head of Amenhotep IV, the wooden bust of Tut as a boy, and a ceremonial gold dagger found tucked into the mummified monarch’s belt.

The most fascinating piece is a tiny, but perfect coffinette used to preserve the viscera of Tutankhamun (or as we like to call them, “Tut’s guts”) during the mummification process.  On it, the boy king is depicted in gold, obsidian, crystal, and glass wearing his trademark striped headdress.  My 7-year-old son said it best: “Whoa.”

There are two other small coffins that are new to the exhibit which were found to contain tiny mummified female fetuses (currently undergoing DNA testing to determine their relationship to King Tut).  Interesting for adults, but a little grisly for kids.

Unfortunately the iconic golden Death Mask which was the highlight of the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibit in 1979 no longer travels—the Egyptian government has deemed it too fragile.  Tut’s mummy and inner sarcophagus aren’t touring either.  They are still in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs will be at the de Young Museum in San Francisco through March, 2010.  Tickets are available at www.tutsanfrancisco.org.

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