Ancient Egypt was a long lasting and prosperous land that was ruled by many Pharaoh's. Although each Pharaoh looked and acted differently, ancient Egyptians believed that every Pharaoh was the Egyptian god Horus, son of Re the sun god. Once a Pharaoh had died they believed Horus was reincarnated in a different person, who became the next Pharoah.
King Tut, or Tutankhamun, was the son of Akhenaten. Originally his name was Tutankhaten, meaning in the living image of Aten (the god of the sun disc). He came to the throne at age nine and was the 12th king of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. During his rule, he converted the polytheistic Egypt turned monotheistic by his father, back to its original polytheistic state. During the early stages of his rule, an elder by the name of Ay aided the young Tutankhamun in his rule because of his young age. Upon the restoration of the Egyptian religion, he changed his name to Tutankhamun, meaning in the living image of Amun.
While King Tut was in control of Egypt he had few major achievements because of his young age and early death. However, some of the changes he made while in power included the reversal of his father's widely unsupported changes to Egyptian government and religion. These changes included: relocating the Royal Court back to its previous location of Thebes and improving foreign relations ruined by his father with neighboring empires.
Until the discovery of his grave in 1922, by Howard Carter, King Tut was unknown to historians due to his minor importance in Egyptian history. However, today the discovery of his grave provided very useful information on Egyptian burials and traditions that were previously unknown due to grave robbers and thieves. Since the discovery of his tomb, he has become the most famously known Egyptian Pharaoh in history. His body, that was preserved for more that 3,000 years, now resides in the Valley of Kings in Egypt, where it is on display for the public to see.
While researching about King Tut, I was very surprised by how little he actually did in Egyptian history. It was interesting to learn that he was virtually unknown until his tomb was found in the 1920's. That really makes me wonder how many influential people, or just people in general, are lost in history. It's even more interesting to me, though how archeologists can take so few artifacts of people and figure out their story. King Tut's story may not be all that interesting, but it would be cool to see if we found out that there was more to the story than we know.